AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists
Tech is helping to identify and save new specimens and could open ‘genomic goldmine’ of fungi data
TL;DR
- AI and digitization are seen as crucial tools in the fight against plant and fungal extinction.
- New technologies allow scientists to track shifts in flowering times, identify specimens rapidly, and extract genetic data from historical samples.
- Digitization of millions of archived specimens is providing new insights, especially for the global south.
- Approximately 40% of assessed plant species are at risk of extinction, with millions more yet to be analyzed or even named.
- Fungi face an even more critical situation, with 90% of estimated species unknown to science and less than 1% assessed for extinction risk.
- AI models are showing promise in identifying challenging plant species, sometimes outperforming human specialists.
- Digitizing specimens accelerates international collaboration and access to important collections.
- A global study revealed that flowering times have shifted by an average of 2.5 days per decade due to the climate crisis.
- Extracting genomes from old fungal specimens is opening up a 'genomic goldmine' for potential new medicines and disease prediction.
- Concerns exist regarding the energy and water usage of AI datacenters.
- The report warns that digitization and AI could amplify existing biases if data is not expanded and improved.