How AI is being used to help us reach the Predator Free 2050 goal.

I’m no AI booster – in fact for all manner of reasons I’m downright worried about where we’re being led with this technology. 

But reading the story about the massive conservation gains in South Westland (see Knockin’ on heaven’s door), where hundreds of thousands of hectares of bush is being made predator free, has helped me see the good use that AI can be put to. 

The predator control advances of just a few years ago are now described as ‘low-tech’. Gone are the chewcards used to figure out which predators were around. Motion-sensitive trail cameras that might have been checked once every six weeks and required hours to sift through the footage are also on the way out. In their place we have kea-proof AI-powered thermal cameras that photograph the heat signature of an animal and send the image straight to the office, where a plan of action can be put into place immediately.

“It used to take one hour to service one trail camera. Now it takes one hour to check all 1000 AI cameras,” says Ethan Perry, a field ranger for Predator Free South Westland. Such efficiency gains not only improve outcomes for native birds and bush, they also help bring down the cost of predator control – a major obstacle to reaching the goal of Predator Free 2050. Perry says the AI cameras save about $50 per hectare per year compared to traditional trail cameras. When you’re attempting landscape-scale predator control, that’s a significant saving. 

My hope is that we find more such positive uses for AI so that it might be used to improve our lives and outdoor experiences. We have a long way to go to alleviate concerns over AI technology. We’re also a long way off reaching that lofty 2050 predator free goal, but we are getting closer and proving it is possible to bring our precious birds and bush back from the brink.