<
https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-good-tree-we-used-ai-to-ask-birds-233281>
"Grassy box gum woodlands once covered millions of square kilometres in
southeastern Australia, but today less than 5% remains. The loss of large old
trees has been a crisis for the many species of birds and other animals that
depend on them for habitat.
Replacing this habitat is not easy. There is no quick way to create a
centuries-old tree.
One thing we can do is make artificial structures that mimic the features of
large old trees in degraded environments where trees cannot live or are too
young and small. We have been working with the Australian Capital Territory
Parks and Conservation Service to do just this in the Molonglo region of
Canberra.
To build these artificial structures, we need to know what makes good habitat
from an animal’s point of view. And to find that out, we developed ways to use
AI and machine learning to include non-human stakeholders – in this case birds
and trees – in the design process. In effect, we enrolled large old trees as
lead designers, and birds as discerning assessors of their work."
In other words, they took a bird perspective rather than literally “asking
birds”. It’s a bit of poetic license to generate a more appealing headline.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
