Preface

During my time as a data mining and machine learning researcher at the IBM Research laboratory in Rüschlikon (Zurich), I heard that Bob Bishop, formerly Chairman and CEO of Silicon Graphics, was visiting the lab to present his vision for an International Centre for Earth Simulation - ICES Foundation. Luckily, I was able to attend the lecture, and was very impressed by the ICES mission of building towards a holistic understanding of the Earth. The idea stuck in my mind for several years, and generated many discussions with Bob Bishop, which led to my joining the ICES Foundation as Chief Data Scientist in 2018. ICES seeks to add value through the horizontal integration of scientific disciplines, complementing the vertical specialized knowledge that is generated in universities. Building bridges between disciplines is thus key to our approach. An important step in this direction is to gather experts from multiple disciplines, and challenge them to think outside of their specializations, developing a common understanding and language, which is the purpose of the ICES Biennial Workshops, the seventh of which will be held in Geneva in October 2024. One thing that all disciplines have in common is that Artificial Intelligence has arrived fresh on the scene, offering a new and fast evolving set of powerful yet quirky tools. It became clear that keeping track of AI advances, and of their uses in science and technology, was an important and valuable service that I could contribute. This book and its companion website provide the reader with a compact presentation of AI fundamentals, as well as with an overview of present and possible future applications of AI, especially in the Earth sciences. We do not dwell on specific technical or implementation details, but rather aim at an increased understanding of the possibilities that AI opens up, as well as of some of its current limitations and deep pitfalls, and possible future directions. The website will be regularly updated as new developments arise, likely at an ever accelerating rate if the past few years are any indication.

Nyon, Switzerland, June 2024