How a Tech Company Is Using Artificial Intelligence to Save Elephants From Poaching

A herd of elephants walks in front of Mount Kilimanjaro in Amboseli National Park. A centuries-old problem that has affected nearly every region on Earth is about to get a high-tech solution. Artificial intelligence company Neurala is using machine learning coupled with cameras and drones to put a stop to the poaching crisis in Africa. Focusing on the rhino population (which, for just black rhinos, has dwindled by 97.6 percent since 1960) and African elephants (35,000 of which were killed last year), the company is enhancing the Lindbergh Foundation's effort to track and predict the paths of both at-risk animals and the poachers who are hunting them. "We believe that Neurala is the first to have AI software that can identify wildlife and poachers," Neurala CEO Massimiliano Versace told the Observer.