Science insurgents plot a climate model driven by artificial intelligence

Sometimes it seems the clouds over climate science just won't lift. Computer models of Earth's climate have multiplied in number, complexity, and computational power, yet they remain unable to answer more precisely some of the questions most on the public's mind: How high must we build sea walls to last until 2100? How bad will heat waves get in the next decade? What will Arctic shipping routes look like in 2030? Climate models all agree that global temperatures will continue to rise in response to humanity's greenhouse gas emissions, but uncertainties stubbornly persist over how quickly that will happen and how high temperatures will go. Tapio Schneider, a German-born climate dynamicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, believes climate science can do better. Later this summer, an academic consortium led by Schneider and backed by prominent technology philanthropists, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will launch an ambitious project to create a new climate model.