Are you ever just blown away with how smart some people are?
That is how feel about Enrico Di Minin and Christopher Fink, a couple researchers from the University of Helsinki. I just read a study by the two of them on how they have been using machine learning to identify criminals selling illegal animal products on social media.
According to these researchers, despite social media platforms trying to crack down on this illegal practice (just try to see a recent shot of #pangolin), these platforms continue to be the most popular way to advertise, source, and trade species and wildlife products.
The solution has been hundreds of man hours spent combing through these sites looking for content, however Di Minin and Fink have a better idea. They have been working on training a computer to weed out safe content leaving only the most relevant and potentially illegal posts, in so doing reducing the amount of work experts have to do by about 90%. In other words, this would allow authorities to catch the bad guys much quicker and more efficiently.
Do not be mistaken, this is no simple task. The amount of work and data this project requires is immense. Though they have had some successful trials, I am certain that there is much work to be done before this technology is in wide use.
It is efforts like this that give me hope. If we ever stand a chance at turning the pangolin trafficking tide, this is exactly the sort of innovation we need. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say, “God speed and good luck to all working on this project!”
For more info about efforts made to save pangolins follow pangolinandco
Photo credit: unknown
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