Google's SpeciesNet AI: Open-Source Model Identifies Wildlife from Camera Trap Images

Google's SpeciesNet AI: Open-Source Model Identifies Wildlife from Camera Trap Images

Google has open-sourced an AI model, SpeciesNet, designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps.                         Image Credits:picture alliance / Contributor / Getty Images                          Researchers around the world use camera traps — digital cameras connected to infrared sensors — to study wildlife populations. But while these traps can provide valuable insights, they generate massive volumes of data that take days to weeks to sift through. In a bid to help, Google launched Wildlife Insights, an initiative of the company’s Google Earth Outreach philanthropy program, around six years ago. Wildlife Insights provides a platform where researchers can share, identify, and analyze wildlife images online, collaborating to speed up camera trap data analysis. Many of Wildlife Insights’ analysis tools are powered by SpeciesNet, which Google claims was trained on over 65 million publicly available images and images from organizations like the Smithsonia…