SMART: AI and Machine Learning for Wildlife Conservation

Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART), a set of software and analytical tools designed for the purpose of wildlife conservation, had demonstrated significant improvements in patrol coverage, with some observed reductions in poaching and contributing to wildlife population growth. Jonathan Palmer, Executive Director of Conservation Technology for the Wildlife Conservation Society, wondered how far to promote the integration of a new predictive analytic tool being developed at Harvard University, called the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS), and whether the data that PAWS gathered from the parks and wildlife reserves would be reliable enough for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to work effectively.