The NASA AI Earth Co-Pilot Will Answer Your Questions About Our Planet.

NASA is collaborating with Microsoft to develop an artificial intelligence chatbot that facilitates access to and understanding of scientific data about Earth. This tool, called Earth Copilot, will be capable of answering questions about our planet by synthesizing NASA's vast geospatial information into clear and concise responses.

To carry out this project, NASA is incorporating 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 did the COVID-19 pandemic affect air quality in the United States?"

NASA's goal is to "democratize" access to scientific data with the launch of Earth Copilot, as currently obtaining and understanding the information contained in the agency's database is complicated for those who are not researchers or scientists. Tyler Bryson, corporate vice president of Microsoft for health and public sector, noted that for many, finding and extracting information requires navigating technical interfaces, understanding data formats, and mastering the complexities of geospatial analysis, skills that few non-technical users possess. According to Bryson, "AI could simplify this process, reducing the time needed to extract information from Earth data to mere seconds."

At this moment, Earth Copilot is only available to NASA scientists and researchers, who will evaluate the tool's capabilities. Subsequently, they will explore its integration into NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) platform, which already provides access to some of the agency's data.