2024-06-12 –, Room E - Flexroom
I will present progress in using AI and satellite imagery to document environmental crime, including illegal mining, forest destruction, and land grabbing, and discuss ways reporters, NGOs, and indigenous activists are furthering calls for accountability and enforceable land rights. Remote sensing foundation models are bringing satellite analysis within reach of activists without AI expertise. With a demo of a tool for non-AI-experts to label and search imagery of our planet in real time, I will open a conversation on future uses of AI technologies for environmental justice.
Edward Boyda is a physicist, teacher, data scientist, and satellite journalist. He works with the non-profit Earth Genome, where he runs satellite+AI-driven investigations for environmental and human rights reporting. Before joining Earth Genome, he was an Associate Professor of Physics at Saint Mary's College of California, with interests in particle physics and quantum computing. He is writing a book about years living with his family in a small town in arctic Sápmi / Norway.