A Amazon Web Services (AWS) e o Instituto Jane Goodall announced this Thursday, November 20th, the digitization of six decades of research on primates, and for the first time, through AI, this data is accessible to all researchers.
“For 65 years, the Jane Goodall Institute (IJG) has meticulously documented countless pioneering investigations on chimpanzees and baboons in: handwritten field notes, unique film images and observation data in multiple databases”, where much of this “irreplaceable scientific information remains in analog formats, which limits its access and increases the risk of loss over time”, says AWS, in a statement.
The technology company announced support of one million dollars (around 860 thousand euros, at the current exchange rate), through its Artificial Intelligence Innovation Fund [IA] generative, “to help preserve and transform this legacy”.
The funding “will support the comprehensive digital transformation of the Jane Goodall Institute’s research archives, through human resources and artificial intelligence technologies that will boost the organization’s work”, says AWS.
“By using advanced artificial intelligence models from Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, we will analyze the Jane Goodall Institute’s archives of handwritten notes and videos. This AI-assisted analysis will unlock new possibilities for scientific research,” says Taimur Rashid, general director of the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, quoted in a statement.
Amazon Web Services will collaborate with Ode, which ‘due to its vast experience in research, conservation and design, will be responsible for developing the user experience’.
Together, they will help the Jane Goodall Institute embrace and use AI to open new paths and advances in research.
“We thank AWS and Ode for providing the resources to digitize our archives and develop new technologies. This support is a fundamental step towards expanding the holistic vision” of Jane Goodall, “which is based on research, conservation and education”, says Lilian Pintea, vice president of Conservation Science at IJG-USA, cited in a statement.
“By using generative and agentive AI technologies [agentes IA] to access these files, we were able to expand JGI’s mission. Our goal is to create a digital legacy that ensures Jane Goodall’s pioneering work continues to inspire and guide future generations.”
The two objectives of the initiative are “to create an AI system that facilitates research in the institute’s archives and, second, to launch an ‘online’ portal for the global scientific community”, thus preserving Jane Goodall’s legacy, and empowering future generations of scientists with the tools necessary to continue her work, they say.