NASA launches AI to answer your questions about Earth

While NASA is making life more complicated with the Artemis II mission launcher, intended to send men into orbit around the Moon, the time has come for a new conversational agent boosted with artificial intelligence. The American space agency has in fact joined forces with Microsoft and its AI to provide a wealth of knowledge about the Earth to the most curious Internet users: Earth Copilot

A little AI and NASA for your coffee break?

In a blog post published on November 14, 2024, Microsoft specifically unveiled Earth Copilot. Its goal is simple: to transform the way people interact with Earth data, taking advantage of the 100 petabytes of data collected by NASA.

Thus, the tool integrates the NASA data repository in order to make geospatial data more digestible. The Verge reports that the latter can answer questions like: “What was the impact of Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island?” or “How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected air quality in the United States?”

The American space agency therefore wants to “democratize” access to scientific data to the general public, by offering a simple and effective understanding of the information present in its gigantic database.

Tons of understandable Earth data

Tyler Bryson, Microsoft vice president for healthcare and public sector, explains: “For many, finding and extracting information requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats, and mastering the intricacies geospatial analysis, specialized skills that very few non-technical users possess”.

The manager therefore continues by highlighting the benefits of artificial intelligence for NASA data processing. He specifically points out that “AI can streamline this process, reducing the time it takes to obtain insights from Earth data to seconds.”

Unfortunately, Earth Copilot is not yet available to everyone. Indeed, we learn that the tool is accessible only to NASA scientists and researchers, with the aim of initially evaluating its capabilities.

“They will then study its integration into NASA’s data visualization, exploration and analysis (VEDA) platform, which already offers access to certain agency data,” The Verge finally reports.