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A Multilateral AI Strategy for Biodiversity and Restoration

We Must Question Existing International Strategies and Reach New Consensus in the Field of Artificial Intelligence

Photo by Ahmed Galal from Unsplash downloaded on the 25th of July 2023.
Photo by Ahmed Galal from Unsplash downloaded on the 25th of July 2023.

Summary

Species both plants and animals on our planet are dying rapidly. It seems rather strange that we are not focusing more on this within strategies relating to Artificial Intelligence, however it is not strange considering the financial pull towards the few developers with the expertise to pursue development and operation of artificial intelligence. We can use artificial intelligence for analysis of biomass; mitigating impact of linear infrastructure; and marine conservation through monitoring. We have to ask ourselves the question of whether we are using artificial intelligence with the right priorities. The national AI strategy of Portugal is one of the few national strategies that speaks of: "AI for biodiversity, from forests and green economy to marine species and blue economy." They place this as a third aspect in order of priority, yet we must consider if this should be pushed further up on our global agenda. Restoration of our environment requires multilateral collaboration equally in the technology industry as other sectors as part of a comprehensive way to address the rising issues.

The most obvious use of AI seems to be for further extraction, consumption and production. However in the middle of a climate crisis and with a deteriorating ecosystem species are dying. I do on no way propose that artificial intelligence can be a magical silver bullet that will help us to restore the planet (far from it), however when all these strategies are made I find it peculiar that few mention the use of AI for restoring environments.

Most of the coral reefs are dying:

All Coral Reefs Could Be Dead Within 80 Years

The drivers of loss are multilateral in nature.

The drivers of species loss are multilateral in nature

There has been a drastic loss of species:

Cumulative vertebrate species recorded as extinct or extinct in the wild by the IUCN (2012) from research article in Science Advances.
Cumulative vertebrate species recorded as extinct or extinct in the wild by the IUCN (2012) from research article in Science Advances.

There is planning ongoing to attempt reducing the loss of species.

I have thought previously on how in heuristic terms we could consider artificial intelligence that is more responsible in a wider perspective beyond human-beings:

A Planet-Centered Approach to Artificial Intelligence

Other times I have asked where the AI strategy for peace is:

Where is the AI Strategy for Peace?

It seems that these matters are not prioritised to the extent that they could be.

So why is this not a focus?

We are investing to keep ourselves healthy and investing in energy.

AI talent is attracted as well to a variety of other areas.

That is in many other industries you will find more funding such as extractives.

I asked an AI executive recently why we do not focus more on this area.

The simple answer: "There is little money within that field."

The brightest minds in bioinformatics may go to pharmaceuticals.

The best in earth observation or geology towards the oil industry.

If you are great at automation and robotics – mining has opportunities.

So on so forth, I could go on.

There are of course people that choose to go outside of these bounds and to choose a potentially lower pay-grade to solve issues related to nature to maintain biodiversity. I am not saying energy-efficiency is unimportant, rather that different talents within programming may choose fascinating problems within the highest paying industry.

There is no novelty in this. Nothing is new under the sun, as talents may go ways that benefit them to a higher degree in terms of fulfilment towards the norms proposed within our society.

I do on the other hand hope that we can spend more of an effort towards automating restoration efforts.

Although we must make sure that entails a wholehearted effort by the technology industry to ensure better use of infrastructure, and for users of technology to realise the footprint associated with physical products alongside great amounts of data.

The Climate Crisis & Why Data Must Not Become the New Oil

Analysis of Biomass

It is promising to think that we can be automatically cataloging insects with the BIODISCOVER machine. A team of scientists from Tempere University and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, Aarhus University in Denmark, and the Finnish Environmental Institute, have designed a robot that can automatically photograph and analyze insects. I read about these news in Jack Clark’s AI newsletter:

"We propose to replace the standard manual approach of human expert-based sorting and identification with an automatic image-based technology", they write. "Reliable identification of species is pivotal but due to its inherent slowness and high costs, traditional manual identification has caused bottlenecks in the bioassessment process"

Automatic image-based identification and biomass estimation of invertebrates

There is progress made as well within other areas. However we know that we are doing less than fortunate things to the other species on the planet.

Mitigating Impact of Linear Infrastructure

One could imagine the possibility to track wildlife in a given area to determine whether it would be feasible to implement a project, this is already being done. Mitigating species along

Guidance and implementation for tools to mitigate the impacts of linear infrastructure such as roads and railways on migratory species is mentioned in a need by the United Nations.

Major UN meeting on wildlife to address critical threats to migratory species

Marine Conservation Through Monitoring

Further implementation of by-catch mitigation measures for marine mammals in national fishing operations. Machine learning applications towards this area. There are projects to protect endangered species assisted by the use of artificial intelligence.

NOAA to Use Microsoft AI to Advance Protection of Endangered Species

Listening to killer whales:

Google’s new AI model ‘listens’ to killer whales to help protect the species

Identifying illegal trawlers:

Catching industrial fishing incursions into inshore waters of Africa from space

What Are Important Applications of AI?

We have to ask ourselves critically how we can make artificial intelligence useful in a more profound way than running even faster in the wrong direction. I do think we can make a difference if we choose to bring forward these thoughts into action. However issues relating to these aspects are not simply local they are international and requires multilateral collaboration.

Portugal could take lead on this considering that their strategy already has a focus on biodiversity:

Portugal’s National AI Strategy

The third of the seven aspects of the living lab outlined in the strategy:

iii) AI for biodiversity, from forests and green economy to marine species and blue economy;

I would argue this should be a top priority, because if we are to restore and consider the wider impact financially as well as towards a greater ecological responsibility in the long-term this has to be pushed higher on the agenda.


This is #500daysofAI and you are reading article 261. I am writing one new article about or related to artificial intelligence every day for 500 days. My current focus for 100 days 200–300 is national and international strategies for artificial intelligence.


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