ClimateCast with Tom Heap cover image

ClimateCast with Tom Heap

Why is AI keeping an eye on puffins?

Jul 1, 2023
22:17
On this week's ClimateCast, Tom Heap sets off on a voyage to find out how artificial intelligence might offer invaluable insights into the lives of vulnerable seabirds, in particular, puffins.

He travels to the Isle of May off the coast of Scotland, which is home to 46,000 breeding pairs of puffins, plenty of other sea birds, four human researchers and now two surveillance cameras backed by AI.

There he speaks to Musidora Jorgensen, chief sustainability officer at Microsoft UK, and Martin O'Neil, project manager at SSE, who developed the system which is learning to identify individual birds using facial recognition.

Plus, James Clifton, the co-founder of Cultivo, sheds light on how AI is being used more widely for environmental regeneration.

Producers: Emma Rae Woodhouse and Rosie Gillot
Editor: Luke Denne

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BONUS INTERVIEW

But there's more climate news this week...

Back in Westminster, environment minister Zac Goldsmith has resigned, accusing Rishi Sunak of being "uninterested" in climate change - which the prime minister denies.

Tom Heap unpicks his stinging resignation letter and speaks to Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, about if the UK has regressed on climate commitments.

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