Natural intelligence

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently asked UK families to help scientists monitor biodiversity trends by identifying species in their gardens using iNaturalist's Seek app. Participants were able to measure everything from birds and insects to plants, flowers and fungi through the app's artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with the findings used to build a better picture of the nation's wildlife. This is just one example of AI's use in conservation; far larger projects, involving satellite imagery and machine learning, are giving scientists unprecedented insights into the natural world. "The application of AI in wildlife protection is full of infinite potential," a WWF spokesperson tells me. "It can not only improve protection efficiency, but also help protection managers better understand the implementation of their own protected areas."