AI tool will scan wildlife photos for climate change clues

Known as INQUIRE, the tool will test how well AI algorithms can mine image banks for details such as what animals are eating, how healthy they are, and with which other species they are interacting. It will measure AI’s ability to draw conclusions from an image bank of five million wildlife photos uploaded to the iNaturalist citizen science website.

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INQUIRE was developed by researchers from organisations including the University of Edinburgh, University College London, UMass Amherst, iNaturalist and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s hoped the tool will help reveal key insights into the impacts of climate change, pollution, habitat loss and other pressures on tens of thousands of animal and plant species.

“The thousands of wildlife photos uploaded to the internet each day provide scientists with valuable insights into where different species can be found on Earth,” said Dr Oisin Mac Aodha, reader in Machine Learning at Edinburgh University. “However, knowing what species is in a photo is just the tip of the iceberg.