Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaichanok Chidchob denied reports that the government sought a 497 million baht budget for an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to improve Thailand’s weather forecasts.
Several Thai media outlets, including Channel 8, reported that the Cabinet had approved a 497 million baht budget to improve the Thai Meteorological Department’s forecasting capabilities. The reports said the money was expected to fund an AI tool developed in cooperation with Tomorrow.io.
Tomorrow.io is a US climate technology company that developed Weather Intelligence, a platform that uses satellite data and AI tools to provide real-time weather forecasts.
The reports attracted public attention amid severe flooding in Bangkok. The government had initially maintained that it could manage the rainfall, but several areas of the capital were subsequently inundated.
In response to the reports, Chaichanok said the claims were fake news. He acknowledged that the ministry was studying ways to improve weather forecasting through technology, but said no specific technology or tool had been selected.
Chaichanok said the project had undergone a proof-of-concept (POC) study from December last year to February this year. It had not yet reached the budget allocation process.
During the study, a private-sector company provided support free of charge to assess whether the technology could improve rainfall forecasting and localised disaster warnings in Thailand.
The results were reasonably good but not yet perfect, according to the minister, who said further technical adjustments were needed to improve the technology’s effectiveness in the Thai context.
Chaichanok added that further studies were underway to identify and compare alternative approaches to achieve effective forecasting while ensuring value for money.
Separately, the Cabinet recently approved a 1.6 billion baht budget for the TH-AI Passports project, which aims to give Thai residents access to professional-level AI tools.
The project is intended to improve AI literacy among Thai people and strengthen their competitiveness in education, employment and the digital economy.
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