National Weather Service Posted AI Forecast Map With 2 Fake Idaho Cities
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 8
National Weather Service Posted AI Forecast Map With 2 Fake Idaho Cities
1 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Jun 8
Summary
A National Weather Service office earlier this year shared an AI-generated forecast graphic that labeled nonexistent Idaho places including “Whata Bod” and “Orangeotild.”
The image was made for social media rather than used in an operational forecast, and the report says meteorologists are not being replaced by large language models.
In weather and climate work, “AI” usually means machine-learning systems trained to detect patterns in large datasets, not chatbot-style text generators.
Researchers have studied those techniques for years, with their strengths and limits better understood and applied differently in weather forecasting and climate modeling.