Tasha Snow

A committment to responsible, open-source AI

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a pace that outstrips most researchers' ability to keep up, creating both exciting opportunities and real risks for scientific communities working with complex Earth observation data. As part of our work with CryoCloud and in partnership with Openscapes, we aim to help NASA data producers and scientists learn and responsibly adopt AI tools through structured, community-centered programs — including a generative AI hackweek focused on NASA mission data and an Openscapes Responsible AI Champions Cohort. These efforts build on proven models of open science mentorship to develop shared best practices and a growing network of AI-fluent practitioners across NASA centers. A core part of this work is making sure AI tools actually work well for scientists in practice. We are integrating and helping to UX test Jupyter-AI tools directly in the research environments scientists already use, with the goal of accelerating scientific discovery while keeping humans in the loop and maintaining trust in the results. By centering the experience of real data users — from DAAC engineers to Earth scientists — we hope to shape how responsible AI gets adopted across NASA's data ecosystem.