Can Artificial Intelligence Help in Fight Against Illegal Poaching?

TrailGuard AI

Technology company Intel recently announced that its AI software chip Movidius will be fused into new anti-poaching cameras owned by non-profit organization RESOLVE in Africa. The latest improvement is called TrailGuard AI. With the chip, TrailGuard AI will assimilate deep neural network algorithms for object recognition and image processing. In addition, it will also function as a motion sensor thus notifying rangers to near actual-time of poaching threats. According to RESOLVE's director of biodiversity and wildlife Eric Dinerstein, Intel not only provided AI technology to the organization but also collaborated with it to build, test, and enhance this anti-poaching solution. According to Intel, the new AI-powered camera with Movidius intends to give advanced accuracy, longer battery life, and is about the size of a pencil which means it can be easily hidden from both poachers and wild animals. The company further added that this new system will be set up in 100 national parks and game reserves across Africa this year beginning in Serengeti and Garamba National Parks and that there are plans to expand the deployment in South America and Southeast Asia. In order to set up the new system, RESOLVE is collaborating with a number of organizations including the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and the National Geographic Society.

African elephants

I'm really amazed by the enhancement in technology in combating illegal poaching and it cannot get any better than the announcement of artificial intelligence being integrated into cameras. This breakthrough is really important because regular cameras allowed park rangers to obtain photos that they had to manually review to ascertain if there is a poaching threat or not. But now, with the introduction of TrailGuard AI, authorities will be able to quickly intercept and capture poachers. I'm very hopeful that this enhancement in technology will enable authorities to stay one step ahead of poachers when protecting elephants, rhinos, and other endangered species in Africa and elsewhere. In my opinion, joint collaboration between big technology companies like Intel and various organizations dedicated to the protection and conservation of the world's wildlife is highly essential in combating illegal poaching and wildlife trade.

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