As Typhoon Bavi nears, Chinese bloggers warned amateur AI forecasts may be illegal

Chinese state media warned that amateur bloggers using AI weather models to forecast Typhoon Bavi may be violating the Meteorology Law, which centralizes weather alerts under official stations. Some bloggers have even charged for location-specific predictions, prompting criticism from state broadcaster China Media Group.

Advertisement As Typhoon Bavi nears, Chinese bloggers warned amateur AI forecasts may be illegal Online ‘weather enthusiasts’ in China are posting typhoon predictions, prompting criticism from state media 2-MIN READ2-MIN Listen Dannie Peng /author/dannie-peng in Beijing As residents of eastern China brace for Typhoon Bavi https://www.scmp.com/topics/typhoon-bavi?module=inline&pgtype=article to make landfall, bloggers have turned to AI weather models to post forecasts on social media, prompting criticism from state media, which warned that the amateur predictions could fall foul of the law.State broadcaster China Media Group reported on Thursday that some bloggers claiming to be “weather enthusiasts” were issuing forecasts using data from various open-source artificial intelligence weather models https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3349995/chinese-team-shows-quantum-tech-can-disrupt-ai-real-world-task?module=inline&pgtype=article .Some have even begun offering predictions for specific locations for a fee, according to the broadcaster, also known as Voice of China. On Thursday evening, a blogger from Shandong province posted predictions about Typhoon Bavi https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3360056/flights-disrupted-ex-super-typhoon-bavi-continues-towards-chinas-coast?module=inline&pgtype=article on social media, saying there was a “90 per cent chance” the storm could move deep into Shandong, based on tracking models.Under the Meteorology Law of the People’s Republic of China, public weather alerts are subject to a centralised release system, and official meteorological stations are the only authorised issuers of forecasts and severe weather warnings. Huang Xiang, a researcher at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology NUIST , explained to the broadcaster that the centralised system was vital to prevent public confusion. Advertisement Select Voice Select Speed 1.00x