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WMO supports Artificial Intelligence forecasting pilot in Africa

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Use of AI in meteorological modelling has recently demonstrated the ability to produce state-of-the-art predictions with relatively small computational power. Thus, there is growing interest in leveraging AI technology to help countries without sophisticated super-computers to “leapfrog” to the latest most advanced prediction systems.

WMO’s Executive Council recently set up a new Joint Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence to inform WMO activities and to balance opportunities and challenges. 

WMO is therefore excited about a new pilot project in Malawi, with funding from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative. It will test the ground in leveraging a state-of-the-art AI-based Weather Prediction (AI-WP) system to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and accessibility of weather predictions in Malawi.

It aims to empower Malawi’s Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMS) to build operational capacity in AI-WP and early warning provision, and to evaluate how an AI-WP system can help in closing critical capacity gaps in Malawi and more generally in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The project builds on a high-resolution data-driven weather forecasting model named Bris developed by MET-Norway and the “forecast-in-a-box” concept developed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

Through this pilot, meteorologists in Malawi will gain hands-on experience running AI-enabled forecasts locally, assessing their operational feasibility, forecast skill, and potential to support timely early warnings for high-impact weather events. 

Malawi – like many African Least Developed countries – is highly vulnerable to climate-related hazards. Its early warning systems face significant gaps due to limited observational infrastructure, constrained human resources, and outdated forecasting systems. 

“We firmly believe this initiative represents a strategic opportunity to strengthen Malawi’s early warning infrastructure, deliver actionable insights, and support long-term capacity development for our forecasting staff,” said Lucy Mtilatila, director for Climate Change and Meteorological Services and permanent representative of Malawi to WMO.

The project – which combines Norway’s AI expertise with Malawi’s local knowledge and data – was presented by Roar Skålin, permanent representative of Norway to WMO at the High-Level Open Consultative Platform on AI during the week of the WMO Executive Council. 

Forecast-in-a-Box

It is being launched in collaboration with the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasing (ECMWF) which is developing early prototypes of Artificial Intelligence/Integrated Forecasting System (AIFS) packaged as a Forecast-in-a-Box as part of the AI-driven solutions of the Digital Twin Engine and the Destination Earth initiative of the European Commission. 

Data-driven models such as ECMWF’s AIFS and MET Norway’s Bris are fundamentally different from traditional numerical weather prediction systems. They are lighter, faster, and more portable, making them well suited to run outside large high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures. 

This set-up enables to run forecasts closer to where the data is needed, offering key benefits: 

  • Users can tailor the forecasting pipeline to their specific needs.
  • Improved responsiveness and timeliness.
  • Deployment across a range of environments.
  • No deep expertise in system setup or infrastructure is needed.

WMO Integrated Processing and Prediction System 

Despite the huge possibilities, there question marks about the capability of AI to support forecasts and warnings of local high-impact weather and water hazards.  The WMO’s Executive Council therefore requested the development of technical guidelines on the use of AI-based technologies and how incorporate AI into the WMO Integrated Processing and Prediction System (WIPPS).  This is the worldwide network of operational centres of WMO’s Members and is the backbone of all forecasting.  

The planned Joint Advisory Group will be a coordination mechanism among WMO’s Infrastructure and Services Commissions, Research Board and other relevant WMO bodies. It will include experts from the public, private and academic sectors and will steer joint efforts to explore the opportunities and challenges of AI/ML technology.



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WHO Director-General’s remarks at the XVII BRICS Leaders’ Summit, session on Strengthening Multilateralism, Economic-Financial Affairs, and Artificial Intelligence – 6 July 2025

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34 minutes ago

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July 7, 2025

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Your Excellency President Lula da Silva,

Excellencies, Heads of State, Heads of Government,

Heads of delegation,

Dear colleagues and friends,

Thank you, President Lula, and Brazil’s BRICS Presidency for your commitment to equity, solidarity, and multilateralism.

My intervention will focus on three key issues: challenges to multilateralism, cuts to Official Development Assistance, and the role of AI and other digital tools.

First, we are facing significant challenges to multilateralism.

However, there was good news at the World Health Assembly in May.

WHO’s Member States demonstrated their commitment to international solidarity through the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement. South Africa co-chaired the negotiations, and I would like to thank South Africa.

It is time to finalize the next steps.

We ask the BRICS to complete the annex on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing so that the Agreement is ready for ratification at next year’s World Health Assembly. Brazil is co-chairing the committee, and I thank Brazil for their leadership.

Second, are cuts to Official Development Assistance.

Compounding the chronic domestic underinvestment and aid dependency in developing countries, drastic cuts to foreign aid have disrupted health services, costing lives and pushing millions into poverty.

The recent Financing for Development conference in Sevilla made progress in key areas, particularly in addressing the debt trap that prevents vital investments in health and education.

Going forward, it is critical for countries to mobilize domestic resources and foster self-reliance to support primary healthcare as the foundation of universal health coverage.

Because health is not a cost to contain, it’s an investment in people and prosperity.

Third, is AI and other digital tools.

Planning for the future of health requires us to embrace a digital future, including the use of artificial intelligence. The future of health is digital.

AI has the potential to predict disease outbreaks, improve diagnosis, expand access, and enable local production.

AI can serve as a powerful tool for equity.

However, it is crucial to ensure that AI is used safely, ethically, and equitably.

We encourage governments, especially BRICS, to invest in AI and digital health, including governance and national digital public infrastructure, to modernize health systems while addressing ethical, safety, and equity issues.

WHO will be by your side every step of the way, providing guidance, norms, and standards.

Excellencies, only by working together through multilateralism can we build a healthier, safer, and fairer world for all.

Thank you. Obrigado.



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The voices of artificial intelligence (AI) are filling the world. If you ask a question, the answer ..

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1 hour ago

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July 7, 2025

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The voices of artificial intelligence (AI) are filling the world. If you ask a question, the answer will be immediately answered, and complex writings will be written in an instant. Even ‘writing’ is no longer a unique human domain. Some say that ’emotion’ is unique to humans, but is it. Some psychologists describe emotions as algorithmic structures called ‘information input → processing → output’. Isn’t it evidence that AI algorithms are good at expressing emotions. All of these flows eventually lead to burying. What makes humans human.

I find the answer in Death Awareness. We all know that one day we will die. A being who knows finiteness, and a being who can ask the question “why exists” in the face of that finiteness, that is human. The question begins with me personally and extends to humanity, nature, and space. Science, philosophy, and art were born in the process of exploring the essence of existence from me to the universe. In the first place, humans were able to raise civilization because they had that question.

In this sense, science is also two-pronged. One is the science of technology for application, and the other is the basic science that asks the source of existence, including humans and nature. No matter how advanced AI is, at the bottom of the technology is the root of basic science. Since AI mimics the neural network of the human brain, it could not exist without basic research on the neural network. Without the language of ‘mathematics’ found to explore the nature of nature and the universe, it was not possible to design an ‘artificial neural network’ called AI. In the end, the question of “why” asking the nature of existence was the basis for making AI possible.

But we are now too easily forgetting that foundation. In the presidential office, the AI officer is sitting above the science and technology secretary with the title of ‘Chief’, and the Minister of Science and ICT is also an AI expert. The policy is following the immediate industrial performance, and investors are flocking to AI startups rather than basic research. AI, a descendant of basic science, is now at the center of state administration, but its roots are being pushed to the fringes. Of course, AI is determining national competitiveness, so it is right and right for us to do well, but we must not forget to take care of its roots.

Many of the inventions we are familiar with, such as phonograph, light bulb, and semiconductor, are also products of basic science. In the case of the phonograph, it was 20 years after the invention that Edison acknowledged the use of ‘music playback’. Jared Diamond, the author of the bestselling book “Guns Milded Iron,” said that the adage that “necessity is the mother of invention” was wrong, citing the phonograph example. It was said that the real purpose was found only after the invention. If so, it should be said that invention begins with ‘possibility’ rather than ‘necessity’. There has always been basic science at the bottom of that possibility.

Korea also belatedly realized the importance of basic science and established the Institute of Basic Science in 2011. Based on the German Max Planck Institute (MPG), the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) was established. But investment remains poor. The IBS budget is one-tenth of the MPG. Nevertheless, Korean society is impatient to prove its achievements. I can’t stand the slowness and honesty of basic science.

However, the roots of civilization always grow slowly. Slowly building questions, not immediate industrial achievements, have sustained civilization. This huge wave, which we are now enthusiastic about AI, was also greeted by someone’s ‘why’. The next wave after AI will be no different. If we neglect basic science, we will be in a hurry to follow the next wave.

No matter how advanced AI develops in the future, humanity will survive as long as the question of “why” continues. Basic science, which explores the answer, is the last line of defense for humans not to give up being human.

[Kim Insoo Editorial Writer]



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Scientists create biological ‘artificial intelligence’ system

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1 hour ago

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July 7, 2025

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Australian scientists have successfully developed a research system that uses ‘biological artificial intelligence’ to design and evolve molecules with new or improved functions directly in mammal cells. The researchers said this system provides a powerful new tool that will help scientists develop more specific and effective research tools or gene therapies. Named PROTEUS (PROTein Evolution Using Selection) the system harnesses ‘directed evolution’, a lab technique that mimics the natural power of evolution. However, rather than taking years or decades, this method accelerates cycles of evolution and natural selection, allowing them to create molecules with new functions in weeks. This could have a direct impact on finding new, more effective medicines. For example, this system can be applied to improve gene editing technology like CRISPR to improve its effectiveness.

Journal/conference: Nature Communications

Research: Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney



Funder: Declaration: Alexandar Cole, Christopher Denes, Daniel Hesselson and Greg Neely have filed a provisional patent application on this technology The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Media release

From: The University of Sydney

Australian scientists have successfully developed a research system that uses ‘biological artificial intelligence’ to design and evolve molecules with new or improved functions directly in mammal cells. The researchers said this system provides a powerful new tool that will help scientists develop more specific and effective research tools or gene therapies.

Named PROTEUS (PROTein Evolution Using Selection) the system harnesses ‘directed evolution’, a lab technique that mimics the natural power of evolution. However, rather than taking years or decades, this method accelerates cycles of evolution and natural selection, allowing them to create molecules with new functions in weeks.

This could have a direct impact on finding new, more effective medicines. For example, this system can be applied to improve gene editing technology like CRISPR to improve its effectiveness.

“This means PROTEUS can be used to generate new molecules that are highly tuned to function in our bodies, and we can use it to make new medicine that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to make with current technologies.” says co-senior author Professor Greg Neely, Head of the Dr. John and Anne Chong Lab for Functional Genomics at the University of Sydney.

“What is new about our work is that directed evolution primarily work in bacterial cells, whereas PROTEUS can evolve molecules in mammal cells.”

PROTEUS can be given a problem with uncertain solution like when a user feeds in prompts for an artificial intelligence platform. For example the problem can be how to efficiently turn off a human disease gene inside our body.

PROTEUS then uses directed evolution to explore millions of possible sequences that have yet to exist naturally and finds molecules with properties that are highly adapted to solve the problem. This means PROTEUS can help find a solution that would normally take a human researcher years to solve if at all.

The researchers reported they used PROTEUS to develop improved versions of proteins that can be more easily regulated by drugs, and nanobodies (mini versions of antibodies) that can detect DNA damage, an important process that drives cancer. However, they said PROTEUS isn’t limited to this and can be used to enhance the function of most proteins and molecules.

The findings were reported in Nature Communications, with the research performed at the Charles Perkins Centre, the University of Sydney with collaborators from the Centenary Institute.

Unlocking molecular machine learning

The original development of directed evolution, performed first in bacteria, was recognised by the 2018 Noble Prize in Chemistry.

“The invention of directed evolution changed the trajectory of biochemistry. Now, with PROTEUS, we can program a mammalian cell with a genetic problem we aren’t sure how to solve. Letting our system run continuously means we can check in regularly to understand just how the system is solving our genetic challenge,” said lead researcher Dr Christopher Denes from the Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences

The biggest challenge Dr Denes and the team faced was how to make sure the mammalian cell could withstand the multiple cycles of evolution and mutations and remain stable, without the system “cheating” and coming up with a trivial solution that doesn’t answer the intended question.

They found the key was using chimeric virus-like particles, a design consisting of taking the outside shell of one virus and combining it with the genes of another virus, which blocked the system from cheating.

The design used parts of two significantly different virus families creating the best of both worlds. The resulting system allowed the cells to process many different possible solutions in parallel, with improved solutions winning and becoming more dominant while incorrect solutions instead disappear.

“PROTEUS is stable, robust and has been validated by independent labs. We welcome other labs to adopt this technique. By applying PROTEUS, we hope to empower the development of a new generation of enzymes, molecular tools and therapeutics,” Dr Denes said.

“We made this system open source for the research community, and we are excited to see what people use it for, our goals will be to enhance gene-editing technologies, or to fine tune mRNA medicines for more potent and specific effects,” Professor Neely said.

-ENDS-



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