Trump set to meet China’s Xi on South Korea trip
US president Donald Trump has said that a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is “scheduled” to take place during his upcoming trip to South...
Google has open sourced SpeciesNet, an artificial intelligence model designed to automatically identify animal species from photos captured by camera traps.
The new tool is expected to accelerate wildlife research by dramatically reducing the time it takes to sift through the massive volumes of data generated by these devices.
Camera traps—digital cameras equipped with infrared sensors—are widely used by researchers around the world to monitor wildlife populations. However, the sheer quantity of images they produce can delay data analysis by days or even weeks. SpeciesNet addresses this challenge by classifying images into more than 2,000 labels, ranging from specific animal species and broader taxa such as “mammalian” or “Felidae” to non-animal objects like vehicles.
The model is a key component of Google’s Wildlife Insights platform, an initiative launched about six years ago under the Google Earth Outreach philanthropy program. Wildlife Insights enables researchers to share, identify, and analyze wildlife images online, fostering collaboration to speed up data processing. SpeciesNet was trained on over 65 million publicly available images, supplemented by data from organizations such as the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Zoological Society of London.
In a blog post published Monday, Google stated, “The SpeciesNet AI model release will enable tool developers, academics, and biodiversity-related startups to scale monitoring of biodiversity in natural areas.” The model is now available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, allowing commercial use with minimal restrictions.
While Google’s release is not the only open-source solution for automating camera trap analysis—Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab has developed PyTorch Wildlife, an AI framework for animal detection and classification—SpeciesNet marks a significant step in democratizing access to advanced AI tools for wildlife research.
By streamlining the analysis of camera trap data, SpeciesNet is poised to support conservation efforts and provide deeper insights into global biodiversity, ultimately aiding researchers in monitoring and protecting ecosystems more effectively.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
A shooting in Nice, southeastern France, left two people dead and five injured on Friday, authorities said.
Snapchat will start charging users who store more than 5GB of photos and videos in its Memories feature, prompting backlash from long-time users.
Nokia chief executive Justin Hotard said artificial intelligence is fuelling a structural growth cycle similar to the internet expansion of the 1990s, but rejected fears that investor enthusiasm has reached unsustainable levels.
NASA has announced that it will reopen bidding for its flagship U.S. moon landing contract, citing mounting delays in Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship lunar lander project.
China has accused the United States of stealing sensitive data and infiltrating its National Time Service Centre, warning that such breaches could have disrupted communications, financial systems, power supplies, and the international standard time network.
Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba-backed Ant Group (688688.SS) and e-commerce company JD.com have halted plans to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong after the government raised concerns about the increasing influence of privately controlled currencies, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
Apple has pledged to increase its investment in China despite ongoing tensions between Washington and Beijing, CEO Tim Cook said during a meeting with China’s industry minister.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment