The nature of AI: solving the planet's data gap | Drew Purves

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 ___ 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 DolphinG