NASA’s Earth Copilot AI co-pilot will answer your questions about our planet

NASA is there cooperation with Microsoft creating an AI chatbot designed to facilitate access and understanding of Earth science data. The tool, called Earth Copilot, will be able to answer questions about our planet by condensing a wide range of NASA geospatial information into easy-to-digest answers.

To create this tool, NASA integrates artificial intelligence into its data repository, allowing Earth Copilot to reference this information when answering questions such as “What was the impact of Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island?” or “How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted air quality in the US?”

NASA’s goal is to “democratize” access to scientific data through the launch of Earth Copilot because information in NASA’s database is currently more arduous to obtain and understand for people who are not researchers or scientists.

“For many, finding and extracting insights requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats, and mastering the intricacies of geospatial analysis – specialized skills that very few non-technical users have,” Tyler Bryson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for health and public sector, wrote in announcement. “Artificial intelligence could improve this process, reducing the time it takes to derive insights from Earth data to just a few seconds.

At this time, Earth Copilot is only available to NASA scientists and researchers who will evaluate the tool’s capabilities. They will then explore its integration with NASA’s Visualization, Exploration and Data Analysis (VEDA) platform, which already offers access to some of the agency’s data.