Disrupting wildlife trade with an advanced AI solution

(China - 21 November 2024) - A new technology that can identify 34 commonly traded species of animals and their products on online platforms was launched today by IFAW and Baidu, a leading AI and internet technology company in China.

The AI Guardian of Endangered Species 2.0 is the latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology to address the new trends in illegal wildlife trade online. It has an average accuracy rate of 86% in detecting illegal wildlife trade products online and submitting them for prosecution.

IFAW has been tackling wildlife cybercrime since 2005. In 2019 IFAW and Baidu developed the first AI Guardian of Endangered Species (AI Guardian) using open-source deep learning platform PaddlePaddle, to address the increasingly covert tactics used by online sellers to avoid detection when posting illegal wildlife trade (IWT) information

Until June 2024, IFAW had used the 1.0 version of the AI Guardian to screen over 360,000 suspected illegal wildlife product images from online platforms commonly used for trading wildlife products, successfully detecting 21,271 images of targeted species, and leading to the deletion of 7,853 illegal postings.

To tackle the increasing trend to trade endangered live animals online for sale as exotic pets online, 20 species of commonly traded tortoises and four species of parrots have been added to AI Guardian 2.0. These join 10 commonly traded wildlife products including elephant ivory, pangolin scale and saiga antelope horn.

AI Guardian 2.0 adopts the latest Large Vision Model and was trained jointly by IFAW and Baidu PaddlePaddle through Semi-Supervised Learning. The model will be upgraded regularly to incorporate the latest technology development and will expand the number and variety of species covered to keep up with latest trends in wildlife cybercrime.

"Over the past two decades, IFAW monitored illegal wildlife trade online and witnessed how criminals have evolved their technology to make combating wildlife cybercrime an increasing challenge. IFAW is committed to use fresh thinking and bold actions using AI solutions to tackle wildlife crime and safeguard biodiversity," says Jeff He, IFAW China Country Director.

"Through the zero-code pipeline of Baidu AI Studio, IFAW staff who are not computer engineers can simply use a graphical user interface to select the most suitable models and use their own datasets to complete the training, iteration, and deployment of the AI Guardian," said Owen Zhang, Senior Marketing Manager of Technology Platform Group, Baidu. "With this development, we are moving one step closer to a future in which everyone can be a developer."

"Furthermore, the recognition model that powered the AI Guardian will support third-party developers and researchers in building their own innovative tools for protecting biodiversity using PaddlePaddle."

IFAW is currently developing a user interface which allows enforcers and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to easily use the AI Guardian 2.0 to identify images and listings of their target wildlife and products. In 2025 IFAW will develop an online course introducing AI solutions for enforcers and CSOs to combat wildlife cybercrime. The first phase of the launch is targeted at Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos before rolling out in other regions.

ENDS

Press contact:

Sabrina Zhang
Senior Communications Manager
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +86 13911116927

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