We've all been there: rushing out of the house without an umbrella only to be caught in an unexpected rain shower. But now experts at Google DeepMind have developed an artificial intelligence-based'now-casting' system which they claim is more accurate at predicting the chances of rain within the next 90 minutes than existing models. It uses high-resolution radar data from the past 20 minutes to estimate whether medium to heavy rain is likely to fall up to two hours ahead. This graphic shows how Google DeepMind's system uses high-resolution radar data from the previous 20 minutes to produce accurate predictions on rainfall to come Experts at Google DeepMind have developed an artificial intelligence-based'now-casting' system which they claim is more accurate at predicting the chances of rain within the next 90 minutes than existing models The now-casting system developed by Google's London-based tech company DeepMind relies on high-resolution radar data. The radar repeatedly fires a beam into the lower atmosphere which then tracks the amount of moisture in the air.

Wild animals are experts at staying out of sight, but a new partnership between Google and the conservation organization Wildlife Insights will try to help scientists capture and analyze pictures of them in their natural habitat. The program will use an artificial intelligence program to sort through photographs taken by small sensor driven camera installations placed in wilderness areas around the world. Google's AI and Cloud services will help researchers analyse and archive the enormous volume of images captured through the program as part of an effort to improve animal conservation strategies all around the world. The camera traps were originally developed in 1990 and in the intervening years have been placed everywhere from Mexico to Madagascar. To date, 4.553 million pictures have been taken from 8,209 camera deployments.

Google Research engineers have developed a deep learning system that can separate voices from audio-visual data recorded in crowded environments. The system they developed is the equivalent of the "cocktail party" effect, a feature of the human brain that can isolate and focus on one or more particular voices in a crowd. The system is designed to work with both audio and video data at the same time. Google says it created its novel tech by feeding it over 100,000 high-quality videos of lectures and talks hosted on YouTube. All talks were given by a single speaker, with minimal background noise. They trained the AI to recognize sounds based on lip/mouth movement.