Artificial intelligence is being used to predict our interests 鈥� from which movies we like to what groceries we need. And now researchers are using the tech to and better understand how extinction works.
鈥淲e're pretty much in a mass extinction event, and a lot of these extinctions are mediated through species interactions,鈥� said John Llewelyn, a research fellow at Flinders University in Australia who worked on the study. 鈥淸A certain] species going extinct can 鈥� cause an extinction cascade. So species interactions are really important in that way.鈥�
Researchers used machine learning, which uses AI to create models. They have a list of all the species and their traits, and it goes through decision trees that are like a large, repeated game of 20 questions. For a fox, it will ask questions such as 鈥淚s it over 10 pounds?鈥�
After the AI classified the species, researchers tested its knowledge and found that it could accurately predict the interactions of mammals and birds. That had 鈥渘ever been done before,鈥� according to Llewelyn.
Once the AI learns and categorizes a species as a predator or prey, researchers can try various scenarios and interactions to see how it might respond. For example, what would a fox eat if it moved to a different habitat, or if its rabbit prey died out?
鈥淚t works well even when there's no interaction data for the species we want to make predictions for, which is really handy if we're dealing with rare species, which are the ones that are most vulnerable to extinction,鈥� Llewelyn added.
This technology could be helpful for Mountain West states, as natural disasters and climate change from one habitat to another.
Llewelyn鈥檚 team is currently learning about past extinctions and plans to use the AI simulation for current and future extinctions soon.
Scientists have manually recorded species interactions over the years, but Llewelyn said that鈥檚 only a tiny fraction of the interactions that actually occur.
鈥淭urns out we don't have good food webs for pretty much every ecosystem on the planet, we're missing data,鈥� he said. 鈥淸So there鈥檚] less confidence in our understanding of how extinction cascades could unfold.鈥�
Llewelyn said this technology can help in the race against time to protect the hundreds of thousands of species facing extinction.
鈥淧eople could go out and try and physically record all of those interactions, but it's very time consuming and very costly,鈥� he said. 鈥淎I makes it quicker [and] more time efficient so we can take action when we need to.鈥�
But AI is not perfect, and biased data could influence results. Llewelyn said his team had to use data on mammals with lots of predator-prey interaction records to avoid feeding the model incorrect or biased data. Additionally, this model was only used on mammals, birds and fish; researchers believe it could be more accurate by adding data on reptiles and amphibians.
Llewelyn hopes this can be a tool that helps scientists conserve species diversity.
鈥淚t's really important just because of the number of species we're losing at the moment,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need whatever we possibly can to try and curb the extinctions.鈥�
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau is provided in part by the .
