Google Releases SpeciesNet, an AI Model Designed To Identify Wildlife (techcrunch.com)
(Tuesday March 04, 2025 @11:40AM (BeauHD)
from the AI-for-everything dept.)
- Reference: 0176606439
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/04/0321215/google-releases-speciesnet-an-ai-model-designed-to-identify-wildlife
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/google-releases-speciesnet-an-ai-model-designed-to-identify-wildlife/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:
> Google has [1]open sourced an AI model, SpeciesNet, [2]designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps . 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 Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Zoological Society of London. Google [3]says that SpeciesNet can classify images into one of more than 2,000 labels, covering animal species, taxa like "mammalian" or "Felidae," and non-animal objects (e.g. "vehicle"). SpeciesNet is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially largely sans restrictions.
[1] https://github.com/google/cameratrapai
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/google-releases-speciesnet-an-ai-model-designed-to-identify-wildlife/
[3] https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/ai-nature-climate-accelerator-nonprofits-speciesnet/
> Google has [1]open sourced an AI model, SpeciesNet, [2]designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps . 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 Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Zoological Society of London. Google [3]says that SpeciesNet can classify images into one of more than 2,000 labels, covering animal species, taxa like "mammalian" or "Felidae," and non-animal objects (e.g. "vehicle"). SpeciesNet is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially largely sans restrictions.
[1] https://github.com/google/cameratrapai
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/google-releases-speciesnet-an-ai-model-designed-to-identify-wildlife/
[3] https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/entrepreneurs/ai-nature-climate-accelerator-nonprofits-speciesnet/
iNaturalist and Seek do this (Score:2)
by Stonent1 ( 594886 )
Both apps are available in the associated app stores. iNaturalist takes pictures that you upload and attempts to identify them. Seek which is an associated app from the same people does it in real time with video so you can slowly pan around and it will start naming various plants and flowers.
For the bird calls (Score:2)
by Mspangler ( 770054 )
The Merlin Bird ID works pretty well at identifying bird calls answering the age old question of what bird is making all that noise when you can't see it.
[1]https://merlin.allaboutbirds.o... [allaboutbirds.org]
[1] https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
Vetting existing data? (Score:2)
by FauxReal ( 653820 )
I wonder if it can search its training data for inconsistencies/misidentified creatures?
Obligatory XKCD (Score:1)
Seems like we're there: [1]https://xkcd.com/1425/ [xkcd.com]
[1] https://xkcd.com/1425/