Pests destroy up to 40% of the world's crops each year, causing $220 billion in economic losses, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Trapview is harnessing the power of AI to help tackle the problem. The Slovenian company has developed a device that traps and identifies pests, and acts as an advance warning system by predicting how they will spread. "We've built the biggest database of pictures of insects in the world, which allows us to really use modern AI-based computing vision in the most optimal way," says Matej Štefančič, CEO of Trapview and parent company EFOS. As climate change causes species to spread, and disrupts the migration patterns of highly destructive pests, such as desert locusts, Štefančič hopes to help farmers save their crops with quicker, smarter interventions.

Climate change is the most horrific threat our species has ever known: No matter how powerful you are or how much money you have, our transforming planet is a reckoning for every one of us. But there are degrees to this misery. If you're perched in a Manhattan penthouse, the effects might not be immediately apparent (because you don't care or aren't paying attention, or both). If you're a subsistence farmer in Kenya, the situation is already much more dire. There's an equalizer, though, that is helping small farmers adapt to a changing planet: smartphones.