VOA慢速英语2018--利用人工智能追踪世界上的野生动物

Artificial Intelligence Used to Track World's Wildlife

Scientists have long struggled with how to measure the effects of climate change on wildlife. This is especially true for birds flying in and out of coastal¹ areas bordering the Arctic² Ocean.

In the past, researchers depended mainly on information gathered by satellite to follow the movement of birds and animals. But this method can be costly³ and result in huge amounts of information, which can be difficult to process.

Now scientists are turning to another kind of technology to help them follow birds and other wildlife. Songbirds are especially difficult to study in the wild. They can fly across thousands of kilometers and their bodies are too small for electronic tracking devices.

A new report tells about a project in which researchers recorded songbirds and then put the sounds into a computer program to be studied. The researchers created machine learning algorithms with the ability to focus on bird calls while ignoring other noises. The algorithm helps improve the likelihood⁴ of predicting the correct result. Similar machine learning methods have been used to recognize human speech.

Birds are known to make more singing and calling noises after arriving in areas where they plan to mate. Spring is short in extreme northern areas of the American state of Alaska. There, the birds must mate and have their young before winter.

The algorithm is designed to use the recordings⁶ to estimate when the birds arrive in large groups to begin mating.

A lead researcher on the project is Ruth Oliver from Columbia University in New York. Oliver told VOA that she and others traveled to northern Alaska to put recording⁵ equipment in four different places. The equipment was used to make four half-hour recordings each day. This produced more than 1,200 hours of audio, but not all of it was from birds.

“There's a lot of other noise in these recordings. Even in May, in northern Alaska, there's lots of wind, lots of rain, and all of that is confounding when you're listening to birds.”

Oliver adds that the machine learning method is a valuable tool to help identify and process the most useful parts of the recordings.

While some results were produced completely by machine, Oliver said human supervision⁷ helped to improve the process. In both cases, the researchers reported the computer was correct in estimating when the birds arrived to their breeding grounds.

Oliver says the unsupervised machine learning method could be retooled⁸ to use sounds to measure the movements of other wildlife. “This could allow us to track large-scale changes in how animals are responding to climate change,” she said.

Emily Jo Williams is a bird expert with the American Bird Conservancy, a non-profit group. She told VOA she agrees that machine learning can provide scientists with valuable information about how climate changes are affecting animal populations.

“We know from some research that some birds' ranges have actually changed, and they've moved in response to what we think is a warming climate."

In another study, researchers reported how machine learning methods can be used to identify, count and describe animals in the wild.

Currently⁹, scientists depend mainly on cameras in the wild to keep track of animals. But just like the first study, the second also points out the problems of trying to deal with the large amounts of information gathered.

Processing this data can be costly and involve a lot of people.

Researchers created a machine learning system they say uses artificial intelligence or AI to identify, count, and describe the behaviors of 48 animal species¹⁰. They said their method can correctly identify animals at a rate of 94 percent.

The scientists said results showed AI can be used as an effective way to gather “a wealth of information” on huge numbers of animals in the wild. They say the new methods will save time and costs, and can even operate in real-time.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

track – v. to follow and find

algorithm – n. set of steps that are followed in order to solve a mathematical problem or to complete a computer process

focus – v. to direct attention at something

confounding – adj. surprising or confusing

respond – v. to react

allow – v. to permit or let

range – n. amount or number between a particular set of limits

artificial intelligence – n. ability of a machine to reproduce human behavior

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 Arctic   

adj.北极的；n.北极

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 likelihood   

n.可能，可能性

参考例句：

• We must try our best to reduce the likelihood of war.我们必须尽最大努力减少战争的可能性。
• I don't think there is any likelihood of his agreeing to it.我认为不会有他同意那件事情的可能。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

7 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

8 retooled   

v.（给…）更换工具， （给…）更换机械设备( retool的过去式和过去分词 )；改组，革新

参考例句：

• The company will be retooled after the incorporation. 合并之后的公司要进行重组。 来自辞典例句
• Each time the product changes, the machines have to be retooled. 每次更换产品，就得重新装备机器。 来自辞典例句

9 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

10 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。