DeepMind: The Nature of AI: Solving the Planet's Data Gap with Drew Purves

Author: Google DeepMind - Bewertung: 14x - Views:111

Could we use the sound of a coral reef to determine its health? Do we know where all the world's natural forests are? And are we on the verge of using AI to decode animal communication? In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry is joined by Drew Purves, Nature Lead at Google DeepMind. They explore how AI is helping ecologists map forests and species for the first time in history and how this data can be used to better understand the root causes of deforestation.



They also explore bioacoustics and how sound is playing a pivotal role in tracking species on land and underwater —providing a powerful new way for us to understand and protect the environment.



Timecodes:

00:00 Coming up

00:43 Introduction

03:35 AI for nature

05:30 Mapping the biosphere

16:14 Deforestation drivers

19:45 Species mapping

26:50 Perch and acoustic ecology

37:00 Animal communication

38:55 The future of ecology with AI

40:33 Hannah's thoughts

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Further reading:



Natural forests of the world:

https://sciety.org/articles/activity/10.31223/x5zx6p

https://github.com/google-deepmind/forest_typology



Forest loss drivers

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/add606

https://www.wri.org/insights/forest-loss-drivers-data-trends

https://www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/data-and-tools/new-drivers-data-forest-loss/



Perch

https://github.com/google-research/perch

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-49989-z.epdf

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/arts-culture/a-new-ai-tool-to-help-monitor-coral-reef-health/



Deep learning based remote sensing (open source)

https://github.com/google-deepmind/jeo

https://github.com/google-deepmind/geeflow



Species mapping paper

https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11900



Google resources

https://earthengine.google.com/

https://agri.withgoogle.com/

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/ai-nature-climate-accelerator-nonprofits-speciesnet/



Agile modeling

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.03071

https://github.com/google-research/perch-hoplite



DolphinGemma

https://blog.google/technology/ai/dolphingemma/



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Thanks to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to:



Presenter: Professor Hannah Fry

Series Producer: Dan Hardoon

Editor: Rami Tzabar

Commissioner & Producer: Emma Yousif

Music composition: Eleni Shaw

Audio engineer: Richard Courtice



Production Manager: Dan Lazard

Studio Manager: Nicholas Duke

Video Director: Bernardo Resende

Video Editor: Bilal Merhi

Audio Engineer: Perry Rogantin

Camera and Lighting Operator: Robert Messere

Production Coordination: Zoey Roberts, Sarah Ellen Morton

Visual Identity and Design: Rob Ashley

Commissioned by Google DeepMind



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