Last Thursday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., witnessed the signing of a memorandum agreement between ATMO Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI) meteorology company, and the country’s Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
It was part of the president’s trip to San Francisco, California for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
Related
- LIST: All the DOST Secretaries in the Philippines
- Complete guide for the DOST Junior Level Science Scholarship Program
The signing is for bringing an AI-powered high-resolution weather forecasting system to the Philippines. As per Marcos Jr., the system will “help the Philippines build its climate resilience.”
Having such a system would be really beneficial, especially in a country like the Philippines that’s always been affected by typhoons with an average of 20 typhoons per year causing heavy flooding that results in billions worth of damage to infrastructure, and agriculture, plus, loss of lives.
It is considered the largest AI-driven weather forecasting program in Asia once completed.
Also in the signing was House speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Robualdez, who noted that other than helping in disaster risk resistance, the predictive capabilities of the AI-weather system are seen to provide useful applications to tourism, agriculture, maritime safety, and infrastructure development.
Atmo’s AI-powered hardware and software system uses deep learning for numerical weather prediction, which is said to be more accurate than the forecasts of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Romualdez also highlighted the benefits of accurate weather prediction to the power generation and distribution utilities as it could aid in energy resources management, preventing power disruptions, and ensuring stable power supply.