Artificial intelligence looks set to revolutionise ecological monitoring. But at what price?
Artificial intelligence (AI) may not be ready to take over the world just yet, but according to new research, it is poised to revolutionise how we monitor wildlife. A proof-of-concept trial shows that AI is capable of identifying the species present in tropical forests based sound recordings alone.
Biologists working in Ecuador trained an AI system to recognise the calls of 70 bird species and then tested its ability to pick them out from recordings made in forests at various stages of regeneration.
As reported in the journal Nature Communications, the system could identify not only the calls, but also the stage of regeneration based on the communities of species present.
The technique presents an opportunity to process huge amounts of data, which would not be possible using an expert human workforce. And it can be done without disturbing the wildlife.
“It gives us an efficient way of measuring the success of conservation projects,” says Jörg Müller, who led the research from the University of Würzburg, Germany.
Does AI distance people from nature?
Will Cresswell, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the study, says the work “shows that we are on the cusp of making a machine that will tell us accurately and efficiently what is living in the areas around us.”
But he’s not convinced this is a welcome development. “We are at the start of a biological recording revolution which ultimately will lead to a distancing of nature from people,” he says. “Biodiversity is actually only meaningful if it transforms the person – and recording, identifying, listing, noticing animals and plants is transformational.”
“We don’t need a more efficient method of monitoring,” says Cresswell. “We need more people monitoring. Otherwise we just more efficiently record the sinking of the Titanic. Better to have a few more on deck that actually knew and cared about icebergs, and who could have a convincing chat with the Captain to slow down a bit.”
Müller maintains that the involvement of people remains crucial to the technology’s success. “I would say we need biologists more than ever, because all these models are only as good as the information we feed them with in the first place.”
Neither does he agree that AI distances us from nature. “I see the opposite,” he says. “More and more people are already using their smartphones to identify birds in the field via AI.”