Stuff To Blow Your Mind Smart Talks with IBM: NASA and AI: Decoding Our Universe
Jan 14, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Kevin Murphy, Chief Science Data Officer at NASA, teams up with Philip Thigo, Special Technology Envoy to Kenya's president. They delve into NASA and IBM's groundbreaking AI models that analyze satellite data to identify environmental patterns. Philip reveals Kenya's ambitious goal to plant 15 billion trees to combat deforestation, while Kevin illustrates how NASA's resources aid in vital tasks like detecting aquifers and tracking algae blooms. Their insights highlight the crucial role of AI in climate action and disaster response.
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Kenya Lost Half Its Tree Cover
- Philip Thigo recounts Kenya losing half its tree cover over 30 years and the resulting water scarcity.
- He explains how depleted water towers cause short bursts of water supply followed by dry taps in cities.
NASA's Data Scale Enables New Science
- Kevin Murphy explains NASA now collects roughly 25–50 petabytes of observational data per year.
- That scale creates opportunities and challenges for discovering new uses in open satellite datasets.
Applying Foundation Models To Earth Data
- Juan Bernabe Moreno frames applying transformer foundation-model ideas to planetary data as a post‑GPT opportunity.
- The goal: build geospatial foundation models that reveal connections across Earth systems.