Google launches an AI model that will function like a virtual satellite

Google DeepMind has launched an AI model that can create highly detailed maps of Earth to help scientists understand environmental changes. The AI model called AlphaEarth Foundations can create highly detailed maps of our world in nearly real time. The system combines trillions of images from dozens of public sources, including satellite images, radar scans, laser-based 3D mapping, and climate simulations. It maps the entire planet’s terrestrial land and coastal waters.

“Whether they are monitoring crop health, tracking deforestation, or observing new construction, [researchers] no longer have to rely on a single satellite passing overhead. They now have a new kind of foundation for geospatial data,” Google DeepMind wrote in a statement last month.

According to Google, the model can generate accurate enough data about an ecosystem down to an area of 10 square metres. Data from AlphaEarth Foundations takes up far less storage space than similar AI systems, which makes large-scale analysis more practical, the company said.

During AlphaEarth Foundations’s initial testing of data from 2017 to 2024, it beat similar AI models in identifying land use and estimating surface properties, with an average error rate that was 24 per cent lower, according to a paper published by DeepMind.

Google hopes it will help researchers study changes across the planet for food security, deforestation, urban expansion, and water resources.