Google’s artificial intelligence engineers are collaborating with a university researcher to identify dolphins in the wild.
Georgetown University Professor Janet Mann is using Google’s Cloud AutoML (ML stands for “machine learning”) AI system to study and track dolphins that live in the Chesapeake Bay and off the U.S. Mid-Atlantic coast.
The system’s use in tracking dolphins began when Mann provided Google engineers with thousands and thousands of photos of bottlenose dolphins that live in Shark Bay, Australia. That system can match dolphin fins in images in mere seconds, compared to doing it manually by sight, which can take hours, according to the University.
Mann says:
“Tracking individuals is a critical part of biology because natural selection acts on the variation between individuals, and it’s also important for conservation, management and appeals to the public in terms as they are interested in dolphins as individuals.”
For more info on her work, check out the video below or go to the Georgetown University website.
