How AI Can Protect the World’s Woods from Deforestation

Weak regulations and the insufficient levels of forest monitoring personnel around the globe are no match for an illegal timber market worth up to $152 billion. Around a fifth of global carbon dioxide emissions come from deforestation. But AI can give officials ears all over the forest, listening for chainsaws and unauthorized vehicles — warning signs of illegal logging in progress. Outland Analytics, a member of the NVIDIA Inception virtual accelerator, has developed a tree-mounted device that uses audio recognition algorithms to detect these signals and alert forest rangers.