Former Google executive’s startup to use AI to forecast the weather

A startup founded by a former Google executive aims to use artificial intelligence to improve weather forecasting, joining tech giants such as Nvidia Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. in an increasingly crowded field.

Brightband has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Prelude Ventures, with participation from investors including Bain & Co’s Future Back Ventures. and Slack co-founder Cal Henderson announced the company on Thursday. It was launched this summer by Julian Green, formerly of Google X, and three scientists with the goal of developing a paid product alongside an open-source AI forecast model trained on raw weather observations.

Brightband will initially focus on predicting the behavior of extreme weather, including heat waves and tropical cyclones, days ahead of traditional forecasts, co-founder Amy McGovern, a professor of computer science and meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, said in an interview. .

In the past year, Google owner Alphabet Inc., Huawei and Nvidia have released machine learning models that can produce a forecast in seconds, though some researchers have raised questions about how accurate they can perform compared to traditional tested methods.

Many of these models are trained on the same underlying data from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, an intergovernmental organization that keeps records dating back decades, but still relies on physics-based modeling to fill in the gaps.

By contrast, Brightband will attempt to produce medium-range forecasts, which predict the weather 10 to 14 days in advance, using only information gleaned from historical weather observations — leaving out any physics-based data that stands in for missing or unreliable measurements.

Solving this will require an enormous amount of raw, observed weather data, which Brightband plans to mine from government agencies and private satellite firms. Eventually, the startup plans to incorporate data from weather stations placed above users’ homes and businesses.

Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.

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