Tech Roundup: AI to save animals

Brazilian road sign warning of the crossing of the threatened maned wolf. Photo: Uwe Bergwitz/Shutterstock

Welcome to our Tech Roundup, where we bring you the biggest stories in technology and innovation in Brazil and Latin America. This week: many talk about the risks AI poses to the future of humanity, but one AI-based technology is aiming to save animals.

Researcher creates Brazilian fauna dataset to train AI-driven systems

According to data from the Brazilian Center for Studies in Road Ecology (CBEE) at the Federal University of Lavras in Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, some 475 million animals are run over every year on the country’s roads. Many of them are on Brazil’s list of endangered species.

This motivated Gabriel Souto Ferrante’s master’s research at the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences of the University of São Paulo (ICMC-USP).

Why it matters. Identifying these animals on the road and warning drivers can prevent accidents, save animal and human lives, and contribute to research for various purposes.

The system. Mr. Ferrante focused on so-called YOLO architectures. Meaning “You Only Look Once,” YOLO refers to systems that can perform the detection task in a single network pass.

This is in contrast to...

Fabiane Ziolla Menezes

Former editor-in-chief of LABS (Latin America Business Stories), Fabiane has more than 15 years of experience reporting on business, finance, innovation, and cities in Brazil. The latter recently took her back to the classroom and made her a Master in Urban Management from PUCPR. At TBR, she keeps an eye on economic policy, game-changing businesses, and people driving innovation in Latin America.