Google's artificial intelligence helps protect West Sumatra's rainforests

Non-profit technology startup Rainforest Connection has utilized artificial intelligence to help monitor West Sumatra's rainforests. The tool, named The Guardian, uses Google technology called TensorFlow that can record sounds in the forest and send them to the forest rangers' smartphones through the Rainforest Connection mobile application. Rainforest Connection founder and CEO Topher White explained that the tool was quite simple. "Basically, The Guardian is a box containing a battery, used cellphone, voice recorder and solar panel. To operate this equipment, we put it on top of the trees, which allows them to record voices using its microphone and send it directly to the cloud using TensorFlow," Topher said in a statement.