Have you ever wanted to ask questions about the Earth, with no judgment? Moreover, would you rather get those answers from an actual, verifiable scientist, or some hallucinatory AI-powered chatbot? The latter, obviously. Earth Copilot, built using Microsoft’s AI tech and NASA’s, uh, knowledge, in a new partnership, does just that.
Down to Earth AI
As handy as an on-call scientist would be, it just isn’t feasible, even if NASA weren’t operating on over 100 petabytes of data. Instead, NASA will incorporate Microsoft’s AI into its data repository, supplying all the geospatial data necessary.
But as NASA mentions in the announcement, “navigating the over 100 petabytes of collected data can be challenging,” and “geospatial data is complex.” Yeah, thanks. But with an AI chatbot at hand, condensing all that data in an easy-to-digest format for regular folk is a sound idea.
“Recognizing this challenge, NASA embarked on a mission to make its data more accessible and user-friendly. Through NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, the agency seeks to democratize data access, breaking down technical barriers to empower a diverse range of audiences, from scientists and educators to policymakers and the general public,” NASA said.
Users will be able to get on Earth Copilot and ask it questions like “What was the impact of Hurricane Ian in Sanibel Island?” or “How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect air quality in the US?”
Currently, Earth Copilot is limited to NASA scientists, who will put the tools to the test before it can be integrated into NASA’s Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) platform, where regular people can access some of the petabytes available on the network. If they’ve got the technical know-how, of course. When that’ll be, however, NASA nor Microsoft has said.
“The vision behind this collaboration was to leverage AI and cloud technologies to bring Earth’s insights to communities that have been underserved, where access to data can lead to tangible improvements,” said Minh Nguyen, cloud solution architect at Microsoft. “By enabling users to interact with the data through simple, plain language queries, we’re helping to democratize access to spaceborne information.”
