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Clarifications around GeoGPT use, independence and governance

12 May 2025

Dear Editors,

 

We welcome the opportunity to correct some misconceptions about GeoGPT (as highlighted in Cleverley, 2025).

Use

The GeoGPT Terms of Service (GeoGPT, 2025a) were written to address legal requirements in many jurisdictions including China, where restriction on freedom of expression exist. International users may choose two non-Chinese foundation models (LlaMa and Mixtral), which are bound by the laws of their jurisdictions.

Ethical concerns regarding use of user data are addressed in the GeoGPT Frequently Asked Questions (GeoGPT, 2025b). Data uploaded by users will never be utilized without explicit user consent. When users download the GeoGPT model weights and code, no user data is collected beyond basic download statistics. For users accessing the hosted version, GeoGPT similarly refrains from storing or retaining user-uploaded content or input data. Cleverley’s statement that free AI is being offered to geoscientists in the Global South “in exchange for rights to their data” is incorrect.

The priority of GeoGPT as a non-profit initiative is to maintain open access to datasets, thereby actively preventing bias through comprehensive, non-selective data practices. While GeoGPT uses third-party propriety source codes that cannot yet be released, we intend that geoscientists can develop their own derivatives of GeoGPT to advance their science.

Independence

We wish to clarify that GeoGPT is not part of the Geoscience Academic Knowledge Graph (GAKG; Deng, et al., 2021) and GeoGalactica is not part of GeoGPT. Furthermore, while GeoGPT was started in 2022 at the request of the Deep-time Digital Earth Project (DDE), it is now independent from DDE and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).

GeoGPT was initiated by Yunqi Academy of Engineering, Hangzhou, China, and developed by Zhejiang Lab, Zhejiang Province, China. A recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DDE and Zhejiang Lab states that while the two may cooperate on projects including GeoGPT, they remain wholly independent (MoU, 2025), as discussed at a recent GeoGPT open forum (GeoGPT, 2025c).

Governance

Good governance is a mission that the GeoGPT Governance Committee takes very seriously, as outlined in our Terms of Reference (GeoGPT, 2025d). Formed in December 2024, this independent committee is co-chaired by John Ludden and Richard Chuchla, who are recruiting experts from various sectors as Committee Members. It is anticipated that a full contingent will be in place by the end of May 2025 and the full committee will have its inaugural meeting in June. To avoid any potentially conflicted relationship with IUGS, John Ludden agreed to relinquish his IUGS Executive Committee role as past-President of IUGS before the IUGS closed executive meeting in March 2025.

The GeoGPT Governance Committee reports to a company executive committee composed of Wang Jian (Chief Executive and Director of Zhejiang Lab) and other members of the company’s management team – all of whom are independent from the DDE Executive Committee.

How we succeed is as important as the success itself. User community trust in GeoGPT is vital to facilitate the breakthrough geoscience research for which we hope. This is the most fundamental role of the GeoGPT Governance Committee, and we welcome feedback from users in this regard.

Authors

Richard Chuchla, GeoGPT Governance Committee Co-chair, currently President of Global Energy and Earth Resources Consulting, LLC, USA. 

John Ludden, GeoGPT Governance Committee Co-chair, currently Chair, Krafla Magma Testbed, Iceland.

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