U of M grad's Whale Seeker named among world's top 10 AI projects for sustainable development
MINNEAPOLIS -- An entrepreneur who was raised and educated in Minnesota is turning heads with her AI business. Her company, Whale Seeker, was recognized as one of the top 10 AI projects for sustainable development, worldwide.
What Whale Seeker actually does may blow your mind -- among other things, the technology uses AI software to detect whales, using aerial images alone. It is the brainchild of University of Minnesota graduate Emily Charry Tisser.
"We are detecting marine mammals rapidly using cheap hardware for anyone," Charry Tisser said.
She and her marine biologist husband -- along with a small team -- do it to hopefully help oceans sustain themselves, as well as the creatures that live in them. They hope to do this by tracking wildlife more efficiently and accurately. Their clients buy drones or use planes, take photographs, and submit them for analysis by Whale Seeker.
"There are a lot of decisions based off of how a population is doing, and we don't really look at how good or standardized those data are of the animals," Charry Tisser said. "That's the problem I wanted to help solve."
It's important when someone wants to develop an area, re-route a shipping lane, or do an environmental impact survey to see how human actions impact ocean health and wildlife habitat.
Charry Tisser says they're unwavering in their mission: ethical AI used responsibly. Their work was recently acknowledged by the United Nations' International Research Center on Artificial Intelligence as a top AI project for sustainable development.
"Being recognized on this global scale really reaffirms we were right to stick to our guns," Charry Tisser said. "We don't do business with people who are using our tools to skirt any environmental laws, or make whaling more efficient, for example. ... As long as they're looking to do better, we will work with them "
From whales hidden amongst floating chunks of ice to seals using a chunk as a landing point, Whale Seeker is finding things old-school methods couldn't, at least not fast enough to make a difference. It's something they now hope will change the game and preserve our oceans.
