Current AI models such as GraphCast and Fourcastnet are already generating weather forecasts more quickly than traditional meteorological models. However, IBM notes those are AI emulators rather than foundation models. As the name suggests, foundation models are the base technologies that power generative AI applications. AI emulators can make weather predictions based on sets of training data, but they don’t have applications beyond that. Nor can they encode the physics at the core of weather forecasting, IBM says.

NASA and IBM have several goals for their foundational model. Compared with current models, they hope for it to have expanded accessibility, faster inference times and greater diversity of data. Another key aim is to improve forecasting accuracy for other climate applications. The expected capabilities of the model include predicting meteorological phenomena, inferring high-res information based on low-res data and "identifying conditions conducive to everything from airplane turbulence to wildfires."

This follows another foundational model that NASA and IBM deployed in May. It harnesses data from NASA satellites for geospatial intelligence, and it's the largest geospatial model on open-source AI platform Hugging Face, according to IBM. So far, this model has been used to track and visualize tree planting and growing activities in water tower areas (forest landscapes that retain water) in Kenya. The aim is to plant more trees and tackle water scarcity issues. The model is also being used to analyze urban heat islands in the United Arab Emirates.

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Open-sourcing is a key pillar of the AI Alliance. "We believe it's better when AI is developed openly — more people can access the benefits, build innovative products and work on safety," Nick Clegg, president of Global Affairs at Meta, said in a statement. "The AI Alliance brings together researchers, developers and companies to share tools and knowledge that can help us all make progress whether models are shared openly or not. We're looking forward to working with partners to advance the state-of-the-art in AI and help everyone build responsibly."

In its announcement, the AI Alliance stated that it will "start or enhance" any projects with specific goals, such as developing benchmarks to ensure the responsible creation of AI systems. This step should involve building a catalog of vetted tools and advocating for developers to utilize them.

Among other initiatives, it also plans to focus on safety and transparency, including creating educational resources that inform the public and policymakers about the many facets of AI or launching initiatives and events that highlight ways to develop AI safely.

IBM and Meta are joined by over 50 organizations and educational bodies worldwide, such as Intel, NASA, Cleveland Clinic and Yale University. Notably, OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, is not one of the founding members.

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