Early Career Professionals address Artificial Intelligence Issues

The World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) engages with early career professionals (ECPs) to support their career development and to unlock fresh perspectives that shape critical discussions on how new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), are introduced into weather research. As AI transforms weather and climate forecasting, critical questions remain: Who will shape these tools? Will they be trusted? What gaps will they address or risk widening? These issues came into focus in a dedicated ECP panel discussion at the 2025 WWRP Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) annual meeting on 4 September. Four ECPs emphasized the need for AI that is technically effective, socially relevant and globally inclusive.

The ECP panel focused on three themes: data, equity and trust. Paola Rodriguez Imazio from Argentina reminded the community that AI models are only as strong as the observations, data, behind them. In data-scarce regions of the southern hemisphere, even advanced neural networks risk producing fragile results. Her call was simple: algorithmic progress must be matched by investment in measurements.

Rongkun Liu, who works in the Himalayas, showed how AI can accelerate hazard monitoring, but also warned that technological dependence may widen the divide between well-resourced and resource-limited regions. For him, the question is not just whether AI works, but who has access to its benefits. Will there be equity?

Negin Nazarian from Australia and Lewis Blunn from the United Kingdom demonstrated how AI can downscale forecasts to the neighbourhood scale in cities where lives hinge on timely warnings. Yet they emphasized that transferability and explicability remain essential: decision-makers must know why a model predicts what it does before they can act on it. Trust must be built.

The perspectives of these ECPs set the stage for an active discussion. The debate centred on how AI results can be communicated in policy contexts, how complex systems such as the monsoon can be evaluated and how to ensure models are not only skilful but also trustworthy.

The ECP session showed that the future of AI in weather research will be shaped by how the community chooses to apply it. By raising issues of data, equity and trust, early career voices are supporting WWRP to ensure that innovation serves both science and society.