DeepMind's AI predicts almost exactly when and where it's going to rain

First protein folding, now weather forecasting: London-based AI firm DeepMind is continuing its run applying deep learning to hard science problems. Working with the Met Office, the UK's national weather service, DeepMind has developed a deep-learning tool called DGMR that can accurately predict the likelihood of rain in the next 90 minutes--one of weather forecasting's toughest challenges. In a blind comparison with existing tools, several dozen experts judged DGMR's forecasts to be the best across a range of factors--including its predictions of the location, extent, movement, and intensity of the rain--89% of the time. The results were published in a Nature paper today. DeepMind's new tool is no AlphaFold, which cracked open a key problem in biology that scientists had been struggling with for decades.