Generative AI may be coming to your local TV station, as The Weather Company (aka the owners of The Weather Channel) is introducing AI tools to create weather videos.
The Weather Company on Thursday launched ReelSphere, a video creation tool for broadcasters and other customers that automatically adds subtitles, graphics and hyperlocal weather information overlays to video weather reports. ReelSphere even allows users to add an AI voice that sounds like a local meteorologist. Think of the quick weather forecast updates you typically see when watching the local news. ReelSphere can produce any graph showing temperature or radar information for a specific area, especially now that people are demanding more frequent weather updates on more platforms.
It uses large language models (The Weather Company declined to say which ones) to extract location-specific graphics, and can connect to Max, the company’s weather information system. Max is a platform that helps create maps that meteorologists point at in front of a green screen. Crucially, if something goes wrong with the AI, users can still go into ReelSphere and edit information.
Joe Fiveash, director of enterprise media and new verticals at The Weather Company edge Any scripts or information used by ReelSphere during interviews will still be written by humans. Their goal is to make it easier and faster for local meteorologists to present real-time weather information on different platforms.
“Typically, meteorologists are producing these videos all the time and have to change the information for each location and time,” Fiveash said. There are now many platforms for them to share their weather, and we hope ReelSphere can help them meet their needs. “
Fiveash said the artificial intelligence in ReelSphere pulls weather information from The Weather Company’s API and other data sources that its customers are using. We’re still waiting for word on when this tool will be available, but regardless, any tool that can help restore hyperlocal news is probably a good thing.