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AI (artificial insemination) has figured prominently in the the work of CREW’s animal scientists for decades, but now there is an entirely new AI (artificial intelligence) that is more powerful and also risky when applied to the wildlife conservation landscape. How can these AI tools help or hurt the cause, and what are their limitations?

With the old AI, the answers are easy. It can help us produce genetically valuable offspring, but can only be performed by specially trained individuals and often carries risks associated with anesthesia. Though valuable in some situations, it can never replace the need for naturally breeding populations.

In its infancy, new AI already offers a plethora of opportunities to improve the efficiency and accuracy of scientific methodologies integral to conservation such as species identification, climate change modeling, and habitat assessments. It can also objectively analyze metadata, and record specific animal or plant sightings, numbers, locations and/or activities, thereby avoiding human bias and saving countless hours of labor.

For example, in 24 hours, a trained machine can survey wildebeest abundance in thousands of images that would take a human 24 weeks to assess. However, the same technologies can be used by poachers, hunters, and illegal collectors searching for the same endangered species we are working to save, and there certainly are limitations to what this new AI can achieve for science. A machine may tell us where animals and plants are and what they are doing, but it cannot always tell us why or what next steps are necessary to ensure their survival.

That task is the role of the conservation scientist who can process AI output through cultural, political, and ethical filters within the context of their own vast knowledge to develop potential solutions. Scientists embrace new tools, and CREW will continue to consider both AIs in future endeavors, but the new AI holds more promise for large-scale progress in wildlife conservation efforts, provided we employ safeguards against its potential misuse.