Manoush Zomorodi

We need to create cities where you can have this sort of integration.

of animal human animals and other wildlife animals and we need to be respectful of them and to him there was a way that this actually was a great maybe example of living in harmony that we could all take a note out of and you know i live in new york so it's rat city essentially every single day but i just i love this idea of people like enjoying them what you know really observing the otters in their own habitat which was also their habitat you know it was kind of cool

I can go with that one.

I've been thinking about this a lot.

And I feel like AI, AI, shmay I, right?

But I'm going to say it anyway, because I went to a talk where the audience was very upset about AI because of the carbon footprint that it has.

Sure.

True.

However, I think we haven't done a very good job in explaining that AI encompasses many, many, many different things, not just chat GPT or a cloud or large language models.

And one of the conversations I just had was with Sarah Beery.

She's an MIT conservationist and environmental AI researcher.

And her point is,

Yeah, but we don't have to use those massive AI models that take up all that energy.

There are ways of using very small, discrete data sets that give you a ton of information.

So, for example, iNaturalist, the app where people upload, you know, photos.

There are scientists who are using that and discovering all kinds of crazy things that are like you wouldn't be looking for in your picture of a blue jay, but behind the blue jay is a leaf.

And that explains a lot about what time of year it is and why that blue jay has that kind of plumage at that point.

And her point was, I don't need a huge AI to do that.

I can take these smaller sets.

They don't use as much power.