AI, IoT, and language of bees can save the world

In short, the Internet of Things, big data and Artificial Intelligence is being used to interpret the language of bees to gain a true understanding of biodiversity and environmental health. "We're starting to understand the characteristics of communication in the beehive," says John Abel, vice president of cloud and technology at Oracle for the UK, Ireland and Israel. "Already, we understand certain actions of the bee. For example, flying in a figure 8 is not random. Certain tones bees use will indicate food or water. The way the bee shudders and rotates within the figure 8 will indicate to the rest of the colony what it found and where it is. If the heat or sound in the hive changes, it can mean the hive is preparing to swarm. "If the queen bee is too large to fly – because when it is in the hive, its job is to create the future bees of the hive – the queen's workers have to prepare the queen for flying, and that takes 20 odd days.