WWF US
Series Overview
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has left the lab and now affects many aspects of our lives - from our smart phones automatically categorizing the photos we take to automated resume readers which sort us into viable and non-viable job candidates. Conservation organizations like WWF have long used AI to monitor the health of wildlife, forests, and other ecosystems, and just like everywhere else, new applications of AI are accelerating our ability to understand the world around us.
The series will focus on how AI is being used to support conservation efforts. The series will discuss the past, present and future of how these technologies advance sustainability, with a focus on the future, and an eye on both the upsides and the risks of these technologies in a conservation context.
Seminar 1
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation
October 11, 2022 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET
The launch of the series will explore the history of AI in conservation. Speaker, Bistra Dilkina will kick us off with a history of AI and conservation, touching on how she got involved and the breadth of the approaches happening now.
Speaker: Bistra Dilkina, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Southern California
Seminar 2
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation: Prediction
October 31, 2022 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
AI can be used to predict the optimal route for rangers to patrol and where deforestation is likely to occur next. Fei Fang, the creator of the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS) system, will describe how she is using AI to identify news that might have conservation impacts, and how PAWS has been deployed to stymie poachers.
Speaker: Dr. Fei Fang, Assistant Professor at the Software and Societal Systems Department, Carnegie Mellon University
Seminar 3
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation: Ethics
November 16, 2022 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET
Many examples of unethical AI exist - including resume filters that are biased against women and facial recognition systems which perform worse when identifying people with darker skin. Conservation must be ethical to be effective, and the application of AI to the conservation space has its own challenges.
Speaker: Dr. Renee Sieber, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, McGill University
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