The Trump administration has pledged to invest in artificial intelligence. Yet a promising program that uses AI to solve weather-related problems has lost funding from the National Science Foundation.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Trump administration has pledged to increase investment in artificial intelligence, but it recently cut federal funding for a program dedicated to solving weather-related problems with AI. NPR’s Katia Riddle explains.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: Sometimes people ask Amy McGovern how she, a self-proclaimed weather geek and meteorologist, became an expert in artificial intelligence.
AMY MCGOVERN: I’ve been doing AI since before AI was cool, that’s my answer to that question. I received my Ph.D. in AI, and received my Ph.D. in 2002.
RIDDLE: Fast forward to today, McGovern runs a meteorological institute that uses deep learning AI. They take into account data such as air and water temperature and time of day to make accurate forecasts. An example of the kind of thing they work on: sea turtles.
MCGOVERN: That’s a good question because everyone loves sea turtles.
Riddle: In winter, the water sometimes becomes unusually cold off the coast of Corpus Christi Bay, Texas. Turtles swimming below the surface become so cold that they stop moving and float upward, where they can be hit by boats.
MCGOVERN: And if they crush all these cold-stunned turtles, they kill a lot of endangered turtles. So we have an AI method that will confidently predict these stunning events, and they can use it to close the bay. And actually, the rescuers go out and save the turtles.
RIDDLE: McGovern says this effort saves hundreds of thousands of dollars by limiting the amount of time the bay is closed due to turtle-related delays. The meteorological institute is a collaboration between seven universities. They are also working on better forecasting of hailstorms and hurricanes and improving the visibility of cars and planes during weather events. In June, McGovern received an email from the National Science Foundation. This is the agency that funds the initiative.
MCGOVERN: I opened my phone to check my email and I just stood there. I said, I can’t believe that just happened.
RIDDLE: Funding for the program, the email states, will not be renewed. They had already received $20 million. They expected 20 million more over the next five years.
MCGOVERN: And I wondered: How can you not fund us for this? You know, it’s not like we’re a grant that’s just studying something esoteric that’s not life-changing.
ALAN GERARD: This kind of research, you know, takes a long time to start because it’s very complicated.
RIDDLE: Alan Gerard is a former director of NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory. He is not involved in the project.
GERARD: Making these critical life-saving decisions about tornadoes, flash floods, you know, hurricanes, it’s really hard to see how anyone – another group is going to be able to turn this around very quickly.
RIDDLE: The Trump administration has promised to invest billions in AI initiatives. In response to an investigation into why this program was eliminated, the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement that the program, quote, “wasted taxpayer dollars putting climate change hysteria into AI models,” unquote. Current and former NSF staff who spoke with NPR had other theories. Kevin Johnson recently left his job at the agency. He doesn’t know why this specific program was removed, but he says he’s not surprised.
KEVIN JOHNSON: It seems like this is something that could have been done in anticipation of a reduced budget.
Conundrum: Although federal spending has been largely approved for FY26, exactly how much agencies will receive is in question. The president proposes that the NSF budget be cut by more than half. The agency funds all kinds of science, from STEM education and workforce development to biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. With these significant cuts on the horizon, Johnson says program leaders, like himself, have begun to get a handle on their own spending.
JOHNSON: Threats to cut the budget have absolutely affected decision-making within our division, and I imagine almost every branch of the NSF.
RIDDLE: The National Science Foundation’s budget for next year is on the line due to the government shutdown. But Johnson adds that even the threat of future budget cuts is already harming the cause of science. Katie Riddle NPR News.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit the terms of use and permissions pages on our website at www.npr.org for more information.
The accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. The text of the transcript may be edited to correct errors or match updates to the audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio recording.
