AI weather forecasting will save lives in the years ahead, Luke O’Neill has predicted. 

Improvements in the technology mean that GraphCast, a branch of AI, is now the most accurate global weather forecaster over a 10 day period.  

Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Professor O’Neill explained how it had become superior to other forecasters. 

“It really is doing that with huge accuracy,” he said. 

“It’s based on huge amounts of data that goes in; I think 400,000 data points go into it and then it can predict the weather with great accuracy.

“It can do up to 10 days in advance; in other words, you can take data and predict the next 10 days’ weather with reasonable accuracy.”

Winter snow in Co Wicklow, 10-2-16. Image: Bernard Golden / Alamy

While that might be nice for people who like to plan outdoor activities days in advance, the technology will be revolutionary for parts of the world where extreme weather means the difference between life and death. 

“[GraphCast] was predicting severe weather events - like a hurricane landing in Nova Scotia nine days in advance,” Professor O’Neill said.

“The current software, it’s six days’ notice; so, it’s got much more accurate at predicting extreme weather. 

“They’re claiming it’s going to save lives because you can warn people well ahead of time. 

“You can then take measures to mitigate it and with climate change, there’ll be more and more extreme weather events.”

A fallen tree is seen in Dublin, 13-11-23. Image: Dublin Fire and Rescue/X Via Rollingnews.ie

Improvements in AI have accelerated hugely over the past 12 months and Professor O’Neill predicted the technology would soon have more ability than an expert educated to PhD level. 

“[They gave it a test that] asks 400 multiple choice questions to an expert in a field and the expert answers the questions,” he said. 

“If you’re an expert, they were getting 65% correct - which seems a bit low. 

“But the best AI could do was 30-40% - which isn’t bad. 

“This year, [AI] got 60% - so almost as good as a real world expert.

“That can only get higher and higher.” 

AI has previously been described as bringing humanity to a “great moment of potential and danger”.

Main image: Prof Luke O’Neill in the Newstalk Studio. Image: Newstalk