Mapping, modeling, and understanding nature with AI

November 5, 2025 Research

By the Ecosystem modeling team

AI models can help map species, protect forests and listen to birds around the world

The planet’s biosphere is the sum of its plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms. Every day, we depend on it for our survival – the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are all produced by Earth’s ecosystems.

As increasing demand for land and resources puts pressure on these ecosystems and their species, artificial intelligence (AI) can be a transformative tool to help protect them. It can make it easier for governments, companies and conservation groups to collect field data, integrate that data into new insights, and translate those insights into action. And it can inform better plans and monitor the success of those plans when put into practice.

Today we're announcing new biosphere research predicting the risk of deforestation, a new project to map the ranges of Earth’s species, and the latest updates on our bioacoustics model Perch.

Predicting deforestation

Forests stand as one of the biosphere’s most critical pillars — storing carbon, regulating rainfall, mitigating floods, and harboring the majority of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity. Unfortunately, despite their importance, forests continue to be lost at an alarming rate.

For more than 20 years it has been possible to track deforestation from space, using satellite-based remote sensing. Together with the World Resources Institute, we recently went one level deeper, developing a model of the drivers of forest loss — from agriculture and logging to mining and fire — at an unprecedented 1km2 resolution, for the years 2000-2024.

Modeling the distribution of Earth’s species

To conserve the planet’s threatened species, we have to know where they are. With more than 2 million known species, and millions more to be discovered and named, that’s a monumental task.