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A new artificial intelligence breakthrough could revolutionise weather forecasts, its creators say. The new technology, built by Google Deepmind, allows for 10-day weather forecasts to be produced in just a minute. And it does so with unprecedented accuracy, Deepmind said. The forecasts made by the GraphCast system are not only more accurate but produced more efficiently, meaning they can be made more quickly and with fewer resources. It can also help spot possible extreme weather events, being able to predict the movement of cyclones and provide early alerts of possible floods and extreme temperatures. Google therefore says it could help save lives by allowing people to better prepare. At the moment, weather forecasts usually rely on a system called Numerical Weather Prediction, which combined physics equations with computer algorithms that are run on supercomputers. That requires vast computing resources as well as detailed expertise by weather forecasters. The new system is one of a range of technologies that instead use deep learning. Instead of looking at physical equations, it learns from weather data and then uses that to model how the Earth’s weather changes over time. Creating the model was intensive, since it required training on decades of weather data. But now that it is created it could vastly reduce the resources required for predicting the weather: 10-day forecasts take a minute on one machine, a process that might otherwise take hours and use hundreds of machines in a supercomputer. In use, the system was able to provide more accurate forecasts than the gold-standard traditional system in 90 per cent of tests, its creators write in a paper newly published in the journal Science. What’s more, the system is able to spot extreme weather events despite not being trained on it. In September for instance it had predicted the path of Hurricane Lee nine days before it arrived, compared to six days for traditional forecasts. Deepmind noted that GraphCast’s prediction of extreme temperatures could be particularly useful given the climate crisis. The system can predict areas where the heat will arrive above the historical top temperatures, allowing people to anticipate heat waves and prepare for them. The company will also open source the system so that it can be used by others. That may help with other new tools and research to help tackle environmental challenges, Deepmind said. Read More Battery breakthrough brings ‘unprecedented performance’ to next-gen cells Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram

Google has announced a major update that will see thousands – potentially even millions – of accounts permanently deleted if they have not been used since 2021. The purge will include Gmail, Drive and Photos accounts that have not been used or signed into for at least two years. In a blog post announcing the update, Google said the new policy was primarily for security reasons, as older accounts are typically more vulnerable to threats like spam, phishing scams and hijacking. “Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up,” the post stated. “Meaning, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam.” The policy will only apply to personal accounts, with those associated with organisations like schools and businesses safe from being deleted. The tech giant said the update will be in effect from this week, however no accounts will be deleted until December 2023. “We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again,” Google wrote. “Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided).” Users can avoid being caught up in the purge by doing as little as reading an email sent to the account, or watching a YouTube video while logged in. Google hosts billions of user accounts, though it did not make public how many of them are inactive. It follows similar announcements from Twitter, with chief executive and owner Elon Musk recently rolling out a similar policy that will see usernames recycled if they are associated with accounts that have not been used “for several years”. Read More ‘Google is done’: World’s most powerful AI chatbot offers human-like alternative to search engines

Bank of England rate-setter Swati Dhingra warned that consumers should prepare for more food price spikes in the

TL;DR: A wide range of online Microsoft Excel courses are available for free on Udemy.

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We predict Rebirth Island will likely return to Call of Duty: Warzone in April or May of 2024 in Modern Warfare 3 Season 3.