Google’s weather prediction feature was equipped with a new artificial intelligence

Google has just introduced a new and more advanced AI model for its weather forecasting capabilities that will be used in products such as Search, Gemini and Pixel phones.

According to The Verge, Google’s new artificial intelligence model is called WeatherNext 2, and it is able to produce weather forecasts 8 times faster than Google’s previous model, and it is also more accurate in predicting 99.9% of variables such as temperature and wind. The model can also provide hundreds of possible outcomes from a given starting point.

Google’s new AI weather forecast is faster and more accurate than ever

According to Google, the WeatherNext 2 model, based on one of the company’s TPU chips, needs less than a minute to make a forecast. This is while traditional physics-based models usually require several hours of processing on supercomputers.

Traditional models require very high processing power; Because they try to recreate the complex physics of the atmosphere to make predictions. But artificial intelligence models try to predict future conditions using patterns extracted from past weather data.

Google has been able to make the forecasting process more efficient in WeatherNext 2 by using an approach it calls Functional Generative Network. This new approach introduces noise, or purposeful randomization, into the model each time the input is received so that WeatherNext 2 can generate a large number of different possible outputs and scenarios in one step.

These improvements allow WeatherNext 2 to predict weather conditions 15 days ahead, as well as provide hourly forecasts. Google hopes these features will appeal to enterprise customers as well as regular consumers.

Akib Edin, Google Research Product Manager, said: “We found that the energy, agriculture, transportation, logistics and many other businesses are interested in these hourly forecasts. This capability helps them make more accurate decisions related to issues that affect their business.”