Engineering360: "AI system can predict lightning strikes"

I can do that much more accurately using the XM satellite datalink and a $50 a month subscription, which I pay anyway. The downlink provides Nexrad at usually no more than a few minutes old. Combined with onboard radar, I can see exactly where weather conducive to lightning is presently at in relation to my projected flight path, and where I need to deviate in order to avoid it. The downlink also displays winds aloft, cell movement, cloud tops, lightning strikes, and echo tops. This can all be overlaid on top of the real time moving map. It allows me to form a mental picture of the meteorological conditions, including cell stages, movement, and other factors to predict in my head where not just the lightning will be, but hail and rain.

While I can see that this new AI might have beneficial applications in a number of areas, aviation is not one of them. Only a properly trained, competent, experienced pilot on board the aircraft is able to assure safe weather avoidance. I hope the research being conducted leads to a lot of learning and new discoveries, but from a pilot perspective, I can do a better job of predicting lightning than they can.