A new tool called INQUIRE is using artificial intelligence (AI) to study wildlife photos and gather information about climate change. This tool examines images to find details like what animals are eating, how healthy they are, and how they interact with other species. It works with a huge collection of five million wildlife photos shared on the iNaturalist website by citizen scientists.
INQUIRE was created by experts from the University of Edinburgh, University College London, UMass Amherst, iNaturalist, and MIT. Researchers hope it will uncover important insights about how climate change, pollution, and habitat loss are affecting thousands of animal and plant species.
“Photos uploaded daily by the public offer valuable clues about where species are found,” said Dr. Oisin Mac Aodha from the University of Edinburgh. “But identifying the species is just the beginning. These images contain rich information that AI can help analyze to reveal how species respond to challenges like climate change.”
So far, INQUIRE has shown the potential to improve AI algorithms for studying large image collections. Researchers say this could help scientists understand complex ecological issues faster and more accurately.
Dr. Sarah Beery from MIT added, “Our work highlights how carefully organized data can expand what AI can do in ecology and environmental science. We also discovered gaps in current AI methods that we can now focus on improving.”
The findings will be shared at NeurIPS, a major conference on machine learning. Researchers believe INQUIRE could play a vital role in protecting wildlife and understanding the impact of environmental changes.
Source: theengineer
