{"id":492267,"date":"2026-06-10T10:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/492267\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:23:16","slug":"new-ai-weather-model-is-1000-times-more-efficient-at-forecasts-committee-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/492267\/","title":{"rendered":"New AI weather model is \u20181,000 times more efficient\u2019 at forecasts, committee hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government policy and the data centre<\/a> industry are failing to differentiate between \u201cgood AI<\/a>\u201d and \u201cbad AI\u201d, the Oireachtas<\/a> committee on artificial intelligence has heard. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that people treat AI as one homogeneous thing,\u201d Andrew Parnell, professor of data science for weather and climate at University College Dublin<\/a> told the committee. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome (AI models) benefit society. They should be encouraged and kept separate,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

One of them was in use by Met \u00c9ireann and other forecasters and enabled huge improvements in weather forecasting, Parnell said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the most remarkable statistic about this new AI method is that it is estimated to be 1,000 times more efficient at producing a weather forecast than our previous approaches. <\/p>\n

\u201cWeather forecasts can be obtained in a fraction of a second even on a standard laptop that you or I might have on our desks.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said this allowed forecasting to be carried out with less energy and cost than previously, meaning critical information was not a luxury only rich countries could afford. <\/p>\n

However, he stressed the AI used for this purpose drew from data sets and used computing capacity that were much smaller than the large language models (LLM) being developed and used by AI to replicate human language and activity. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Data centre electricity demand could exceed entire power usage of Irish RepublicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we take the data from the whole world every hour, it\u2019s tiny compared to LLM and the computing system is tiny too,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Parnell was speaking as the committee discussed the environmental impacts of AI and the growth in data centres needed to facilitate its rapid expansion. <\/p>\n

Data centres already consume more than a fifth of Ireland\u2019s electricity, due to rise to almost a third in the next few years, and a recently agreed Government policy would facilitate growth that would match all of the country\u2019s electricity use by 2040. <\/p>\n

Much of that extra power would need to be provided by fossil fuels, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and leaving the country further from reaching already very challenging climate targets. <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il TD Malcolm Byrne, a committee member, said data centres were vital and questioned if there was any alternative. <\/p>\n

Hannah Daly, professor of sustainable energy at University College Cork, said while AI and digital infrastructure were part of everyday life, it did not mean they should not face restrictions. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Government departments are using AI, but one clear red line has been laid downOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is a tool. It\u2019s not universally good or bad. We need a transport system but that doesn\u2019t mean there should be unregulated growth of motorways or private jets.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jennie Stephens, professor of climate justice at Maynooth University, said there was an industry narrative that had \u201ccaptured governments\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the inevitability narrative \u2013 that the train has left the station \u2013 or that if you\u2019re against it (AI), you\u2019re against progress,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government policy and the data centre industry are failing to differentiate between \u201cgood AI\u201d and \u201cbad AI\u201d, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[218,72,2885,5691,61,60],"class_list":["post-492267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-climate-change","tag-data-centres","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}