Storm clouds threaten a promised AI revolution in climate prediction

“It’s an absolutely unbelievable scientific achievement,” says Andrew Charlton-Perez, chatting with me through video from his workplace on the University of Reading, UK. His colleague, Simon Driscoll on the University of Cambridge, nods enthusiastically. “There are so many different applications and so many different uses for it.”

No, they aren’t relating to quantum computing or nuclear fusion. They are speaking about climate prediction. “People just moan about the weather forecast and how bad it is,” says Charlton-Perez. As a meteorology professor, he hears this so much. But this is as a result of most of the people…