Scientists and conservation groups have launched a huge new artificial intelligence (AI) network to help protect the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and it’s home to millions of plants and animals across South America.
The system, called Amazon.ia-Inteligencia Ambiental, combines satellite pictures, camera traps, listening sensors and environmental DNA sampling to track how the forest and its wildlife are doing.
More than 25 research groups and conservation organisations are involved, including the Bezos Earth Fund, Planet, Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, MIT, Cornell University, and groups from Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The project was launched during Climate Week in New York, and the Bezos Earth Fund has given more than $14 million to help pay for it.
Megan MacDowell, from the Andes Amazon Fund, said the information gathered “could help conservation organisations better target their work” to protect the rainforest.
The hope is that the new network will help spot problems in the Amazon early, so people can act quickly to protect the plants and animals that live there.
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