Adding AI to the Environmental Journalist’s Toolbox

Image

Can AI help unlock insights from publicly available Earth observation data to support journalists investigating threats to some of the world’s most vulnerable and precious ecosystems? Researchers from Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH), a research center at the University of Cambridge, teamed up with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network and the nonprofit data science organization Earth Genome to find out.

A project led by CDH with funding from Cambridge's Accelerate Programme for Scientific Discovery brought together on-the-ground reporting from multimedia journalist Anton L. Delgado and Earth Genome’s data science team to investigate illegal gold mining in Cambodia. Supported by the Pulitzer Center's Gustavo Faleiros and Center data journalists, Delgado reported from deep within Cambodia’s dwindling rainforests to seek out artisanal gold miners and hear their stories.

In addition to traditional research methods, Delgado was following leads for likely locations of mines generated by Earth Index, a new tool developed by Earth Genome to search through oceans of pixels from satellite images of the remote regions, looking for the distinctive scars on the landscape left by the gold mines. By harnessing the power of AI foundation models built from geospatial data, Earth Index is helping researchers, journalists, and campaigners document illegal mining in the Amazon basin, find high concentration cattle operations in the U.S., and expose undocumented waste sites in Indonesia.

A public event, hosted by CDH as part of the Social Data School, will showcase the outcomes of the project and provide a platform for discussion about the impact of AI on environmental investigations.

The Data Schools are an intensive training program developed by CDH and exclusive to the participants. This event is open to the general public. Journalists, NGOs, unions, researchers, and anyone in the community interested in this subject are welcome.

Registration is free for this in-person event.

Speakers

• Gustavo Faleiros, director of environmental investigations for the Pulitzer Center
• Anton Delgado, Pulitzer Center Fellow and multimedia journalist based in Southeast Asia
• Professor Caroline Bassett, Cambridge Digital Humanities