Google researchers have built an artificial intelligence that they say can forecast weather and climate patterns just as well as current physics models while also requiring less computer power. Existing forecasts are based on mathematical models run by enormously powerful supercomputers that deterministically predict what will happen in the future. Since they were first used in the 1950s, these models have grown more and more detailed, requiring ever more computer power. How this moment for AI will change society forever (and how it won't) Several projects have aimed to replace these intense calculations with much less demanding AI, including a DeepMind tool to forecast rain locally on short timescales. But like most AI models, these are a "black box" whose inner workings are a mystery, and the inability to explain or replicate their methods is problematic.