Artificial intelligence could help biologists classify world’s insects

[FfFfFfFF 58,058]

With biodiversity in decline around the world, researchers are desperate to catalog all of Earth’s insects and other invertebrates, which represent 90% of the 9 million species yet to be named. To do so, scientists typically face long hours in the lab sorting through the specimens they collected.

But DiversityScanner approach involves a robot and a computer which uses a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to compare each one’s legs, antennae, and other features to known specimens.

The technology then imposes a color code, or heat map, over the image. The warmer the color, say, red, the more the computer program depended on that body part to make a call on the type of insect is.

Although not quite as good as a human expert, the approach accurately classifies insects 91% of the time.

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/artificial-intelligence-could-help-biologists-classify-world-s-tiny-creatures