Turning the Tide on Biodiversity Loss Using Applied Artificial Intelligence

26^th July 2022, 13:00 Ashton Lecture Theatre
Prof. Paul Fergus, Dr. Carl Chalmers
School of Computer Science and Mathematics, Liverpool John Moores University

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is proving to be a vital tool in the fight against biodiversity loss which is caused by poaching, climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources. Conservationists routinely use a broad range of technologies such as camera traps, drones and acoustic devices to monitor and understand natural environments and intervene when biodiversity is threatened. This has resulted in conservationists experiencing their version of big data and its associated challenges. They have reached a crisis point where it has become impossible to manually process the acquired data in a timely manner and uncover important insights which are crucial for effective biodiversity management. Conservation AI harnesses machine learning and is now helping a global network of conservationist to process data in real-time and uncover insights using advanced data analytics. This talk will introduce you to conservationai.co.uk and discuss the end-to-end technologies needed to train, deploy and inference enterprise AI solutions in the cloud, on-premise and at the edge. We will showcase some of the results generated to date with our partners which include Knowsley Safari, Chester Zoo and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (DEFRA) in the UK, the Endangered Wildlife Trust and Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa, and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Madagascar.