AI-powered camera system offers low-cost way to monitor bumblebees

Researchers have developed a low-cost, semi-automated, AI-driven method that uses remote cameras to survey bumblebees and potentially other insects. The new tool could have important implications for efforts to conserve declining insect populations . This includes bumblebee species, several of which have been petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. Researchers also say the technology could benefit agriculture, given that many crops depend on insects as pollinators. "Insects are vitally important, and we need methods to better understand their populations," said Michael Getz, a data scientist at Biodiversity Research Institute in Maine, who led this research as a master's student at Oregon State University.