Description:

AI for Nature: From Science to Impact

Tanya Berger-Wolf, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering and Director, Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Ohio State University

Abstract: Computation has fundamentally changed the way we study nature. New data collection technologies, such as GPS, high-definition cameras, autonomous vehicles under water, on the ground, and in the air, genotyping, acoustic sensors, and crowdsourcing, are generating data about life on the planet that are orders of magnitude richer than any previously collected. Yet, our ability to extract insight from these data lags substantially behind our ability to collect it. 

The need for understanding is more urgent ever and the challenges are great. We are in the middle of the 6th extinction, losing the planet's biodiversity at an unprecedented rate and scale. In many cases, we do not even have the basic numbers of what species we are losing, which impacts our ability to understand biodiversity loss drivers, predict the impact on ecosystems, and implement policy.

The talk will discuss how AI can turn these data into high resolution information source about living organisms, enabling scientific inquiry, conservation, and policy decisions. It will introduce a new field of science, imageomics, and present a vision and examples of AI as a trustworthy partner both in science and biodiversity conservation, discussing opportunities and challenges.