The nature of AI: solving the planet's data gap with Drew Purves
3,265Could 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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