Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how scientists monitor wildlife and discover new species, but its effectiveness is still under scrutiny. Currently, AI is used to flag potential new species, while specialized biologists formally describe and classify them. However, AI’s accuracy depends heavily on the quality of data it is trained on, and significant gaps remain in our understanding of Earth’s wildlife.
Advancements in AI for Wildlife Monitoring
AI helps researchers analyze large datasets from smartphones, camera traps, and automated monitoring systems, aiding in the study of complex ecosystems. This accelerates research and enables scientists to tackle bigger questions.
– **AI in Action**: Christine Picard, a biology professor at Indiana University, noted the excitement of accelerating research using AI. – **Study**: A 2023 study published in *Methods in Ecology and Evolution* trained an AI model to classify over 1,000 insect species. The model, developed by Picard and lead author Sarkhan Badirli, learned to recognize species from images and DNA data.
Model Performance
During training, the AI model correctly identified 96.66% of known species and assigned unknown species to the correct genus with 81.39% accuracy. However, without DNA data and relying solely on images, the accuracy dropped significantly.
– **Challenges**: Low-resolution images from public databases affected the model’s performance. Higher resolution images and more training data could improve accuracy.
Monitoring Biodiversity with AI
AI is also being used to monitor entire ecosystems. Automated Monitoring of Insects (AMI) systems, equipped with motion-activated cameras and audio recording, collect extensive data that AI helps analyze.
– **AMI Systems**: Jenna Lawson, a biodiversity scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, highlighted the importance of AI in processing the vast amounts of data collected by these systems. – **Research Collaboration**: Katriona Goldmann from The Alan Turing Institute is training AI models to identify animals recorded by AMI systems. The models flag unusual images for further examination.
The Impact of AI on Conservation
AI tools are crucial for monitoring changes in biodiversity, understanding the effects of environmental changes, and conserving wildlife. Despite the energy-intensive nature of AI algorithms, efforts are being made to reduce their environmental impact by compressing models to fit on energy-efficient, solar-powered computers.
– **Conservation Efforts**: Monitoring biodiversity over time helps track the response of wildlife to environmental changes and human activities, providing valuable data for conservation.
