Tech Tools for the Future: Zebras, AI, and Girls in ICT Day - Seite 2

They said, "you think you can do better?" And I said, "yeah, you want to bet?"

I literally bet my reputation on being able to identify an individual zebra from a photograph easily.

AI for conservation

The first algorithm we created was developed into an even better algorithm, which we are still curious about. But it turned out it could be very useful in conservation for things like tracking animals, counting them, and even figuring out who's a zebra or a sperm whale's friend without putting collars or satellite tags on them.

We realized that we needed to build that technology in a way that non-technical people could use, without becoming AI experts in the process.

And that's how Wildbook was born. Having started creating AI technology for conservation, we realized three things:

1. just how big the challenges were
2. how huge the space was to do something to make a difference
3. how urgent all of this is.

The challenge and urgency keep me going. And most importantly, there's something meaningful that we can do with AI.

How important are digital and AI skills?

Q: How important is it for people to include digital skills in their future education and professional development plans? And why is it so important?

A: I think AI is becoming very quickly a part of pretty much everything that we use and touch. So AI literacy is becoming the basic skill that should be taught in school and everybody should have.

It is particularly important in being able to solve complex problems like biodiversity conservation. Because it is not a problem that's going to be solved by AI alone or by humans alone. The answer truly is in partnership: the human-machine partnership.

And to be able to partner well with AI, we need to know what that partner is capable of and what's the best way to have that partnership. And that means having skills that allow us to use AI, to understand AI, and even more importantly, to understand the potential of AI.

Q: What is your advice for any young women starting out in computer science?

A: Not everybody has to do computer science, but anybody who wants to, should have an opportunity to do so. And even more, everybody should have an opportunity to explore it.

Computer science is about getting machines to affect the world. For example, with a few lines of text, we can create a 3D view of the brain with an MRI machine, or understand the past through an ancient genome, or predict the path of a hurricane. This creative process of coding is exciting to me.