While AI is making a big impact in pretty much every business area, it is also important to note some of the ways it is helping to save our planet. Conservationists are increasingly turning to AI as an innovative solution to overcome various biodiversity crises. It helps protect a diverse set of species and assists law enforcement agents who are often short-staffed, and it is almost impossible for them to cover a vast stretch of land, such as a national park. This is one of the reasons why AI is so useful because it can take a lot of the time-consuming work off the shoulders of human workers, such as constantly monitoring surveillance data. In this article, we will talk about some of the interesting ways AI is being used to protect endangered species and the data annotation that is required to create it.

As physical retail struggles amid the global pandemic, storeowners are rapidly trying to adapt to new realities that also include growing competition from Amazon. But a French startup called Storelift believes it can create a new convenience store concept that leans on many of the same AI and computer vision tools used in Amazon Go stores to reinvent the shopping and checkout experience. This week, Storelift announced that it has launched its first two stores under the name "Boxy." The Boxy stores are repurposed shipping containers that can be plopped down in various urban neighborhoods that lack good shopping options. The founders believe their approach demonstrates how businesses can exploit new shopping niches with the help of sensors, data, and AI that allows them to optimize their inventory and reduce costs.