The space agency has built a custom artificial intelligence-powered copilot, called Earth Copilot, using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, the tech giant announced on Thursday. NASA’s copilot aims to make data collected by the space agency, such as information on wildfires and climate change, more accessible to the general public, scientists and educators, and policymakers. The new system lets users ask questions about NASA’s satellite data in plain English, similar to chatting with a virtual assistant.
AI technology can now rapidly analyze complex data collected by NASA’s sensors and instruments in space, such as atmospheric conditions and temperatures, “reducing time to gain insights from Earth’s data in a matter of seconds,” Microsoft said.