Alice Chambers |
NASA is working with Microsoft to develop an artifical intelligence-driven customer copilot, called Earth Copilot, which simplifies access to data from its satellites orbiting Earth.
Earth Copilot aims to encourage a wide range of users to interact with its Earth Science data. It will provide a user-friendly search engine where users can discover and analyse NASA’s geospatial data by leveraging Microsoft’s AI tools in Azure OpenAI Service.
Scientists, educators, policymakers and the general public will be able to ask the platform questions like ‘What was the impact of Hurricane Ian in Sanibel Island’ or ‘How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect air quality in the USA?’ and AI will retrieve the relevant data sets to provide an answer.
NASA’s new Earth Copilot uses Microsoft AI to democratise access to complex data
“The development of this AI prototype aligns with NASA’s Open Science initiative, which aims to make scientific research more transparent, inclusive and collaborative,” said Tyler Bryson, corporate vice president of US health and public sector industries at Microsoft in a recent Microsoft blog post. “By removing barriers to data discovery, NASA and Microsoft are setting the stage for a new era of discovery, where insights are not confined to a select few but can be explored and expanded by anyone curious about the world.”
Juan Carlos López, former NASA engineer and current Azure specialist at Microsoft, said: “Our goal was to create a seamless, scalable solution that could evolve as NASA’s data, tools and applications grow.”
NASA scientists and researchers are currently testing the capabilities of NASA Earth Copilot, which will eventually be generally available via NASA’s VEDA platform.
“This collaboration exemplifies how technology can empower people, drive innovation and create positive change,” said Bryson. “Solutions like this will be essential in ensuring the benefits of data are shared widely, enabling more people to engage with, analyse and act upon information that shapes our world.”