Google DeepMind and National Hurricane Center Join on New A.I. Model

For the first time, the National Hurricane Center in Miami is working with an artificial intelligence company to improve its forecasts of the powerful storms that kill thousands of people globally every year. The Atlantic season has just begun and runs through November. DeepMind, a Google company based in London, announced on Thursday that it was supplying the government forecasters with a newly enhanced variety of its weather forecasting models. Specialized to focus on hurricanes, the model tracks a storm’s development for up to 15 days, predicting not only its path but also its strength, an ability that earlier A.I. models lacked. Strength readings can make storm warnings far more accurate. So can reliable predictions of hurricane paths, which are known to zigzag, loop around, slow down, make hairpin turns or come to a complete stop. The hurricane center is not eliminating its human forecasters. Instead, the Google A.I. program will be used on an experimental basis by those same experts in their existing work. Still, the research partnership is the first time in which the Miami center is drawing on an A.I. company to learn how to better warn of nature’s most destructive storms.