Take a stand. By taking a closer look.

Seeing means saving when you help us train AI models to detect deforestation.

The Amazon is disappearing.

The Amazon rainforest, spanning 5.5 million square kilometers, is an area half the size of the US, and larger than the European Union. This vast expanse is home to the greatest variety of plant and animal species in the world – and plays a vital role in absorbing billions of tons of CO₂from our atmosphere every year.

But today, large areas of the Amazon are in danger of disappearing. More than 800 square kilometers are being destroyed each month as forests are cleared for timber extraction, crop production and infrastructure development – ultimately affecting bodies of water, soil erosion, biodiversity and climate change.

You can make a difference by seeing what technology can’t.

Our AI platform is already analyzing and making sense of thousands of satellite images that show the magnitude of damage in the rainforests. But artificial intelligence can’t do it alone. We need your help to identify signs of deforestation that the model hasn’t learned to detect. Your participation – whether you identify deforestation in just one or 100 images – will allow us to fine-tune AI models that can detect change in the Amazon and alert conservation and government organizations responsible for protecting it.

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If we aren’t careful, we will watch our ecosystem deteriorate through a process of degradation, a small and marginal process, but collectively devastating over time. Albert Van Jaarsveld CEO International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Learn more about the SAS & IIASA partnership

THE APPROACH

Humans Amplifying AI

AI doesn’t happen magically. It relies on the expertise of people as the basis for its training data. Your input gives the AI models examples to learn from. The more examples, the more they improve in accuracy.

The Modeling Cycle Simplified

Image Collection

Satellite images are continuously collected for areas affected by deforestation.

Image Classification

Through crowdsourcing, thousands of people like you sort and label the images that show signs of deforestation.

Machine Learning

Models are trained to recognize areas of deforestation based on this labeled data, learning and improving at every iteration.

Evaluation

Models are tested for accuracy. High-quality models are deployed, and lower quality models continue to reiterate.

Deployment

Even deployed models continue to be evaluated for accuracy. The best model is run constantly to alert experts when new areas of deforestation are detected so immediate action can be taken.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Working hard behind the scenes

As computer vision models analyze millions of images every day to identify the earliest signs of new deforestation, government policymakers and aid organizations can intervene to protect these forests before it's too late.

AI driving conservation efforts with scale and speed

The global challenge to protect our planet would be impossible without the robust scalability provided by SAS^® Viya^®. Our open analytics platform with cloud enabled, in-memory processing gives you accurate results at incredibly fast speeds. Research data that took years to analyze can now be put to good use in a fraction of the time.

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Keep the conversation going to keep our planet safer.

Our knowledge and passion can have a real impact in preserving our world. So get involved and ask others to do the same at #rainforest.

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