📖6.11 Repost: Anthropos Podcast EP02 Is AI the Key to Saving Nature—Or the Final Step in Losing It?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoWrfhR33Oo

Content Overview: In this second episode, we dive into the evolving relationship between technology and nature, especially in how we understand and interact with birds. The conversation explores the value of both hands-on fieldwork and tech tools like Merlin’s Sound ID and Photo ID in birding. While fieldwork offers a direct, immersive experience, technology, especially machine learning, is changing the game by making bird identification and ecosystem monitoring more accessible. Sound recordings, for example, provide insights into bird behavior and ecosystem health. The episode also raises key questions: Can AI accelerate conservation, or does it risk oversimplifying biodiversity? And as tech makes nature observation easier, is it bringing us closer to or further from the natural world? With tools like Merlin and eBird, we examine how they might bridge the gap between urban living and conservation. Tune in for a closer look at how tech is shaping wildlife understanding and conservation efforts.

Guest Profile:Archie is currently based in Seattle, Washington. He discovered his passion for ornithology in middle school, which deepened during his undergrad at Cornell, where he joined the birding club and worked at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He started by translating bird descriptions for Merlin Bird Packs (English to Chinese). He later helped develop software and trained machine learning systems for Merlin Photo ID and Sound ID. In the field, he assisted with bird banding (with Dr. Andrew Stillman) and collected bird sounds. Archie combines his software engineering skills with his love for birds to support conservation through tech.

#podcast #wildlife #birds #conservation #anthropology #technology