Ten years ago, we couldn't have imagined how tools like machine learning, eDNA, and satellites would advance and transform conservation work. Now technology is advancing faster than ever, and as tools become smaller, lighter, and more affordable, it's vital to have a space where community members can discuss the next big thing, share ideas, compare tool options, and tell the story of their experiences - positive, negative, and anything in between - while using new technologies.
In 2021, the WILDLABS State of Conservation Tech report detailed what tools show the most promise according to community members, as well as what tools are currently seen as the most effective. And as new tools enter the field, we're excited to see how this data will change over time, and how this group grows over time as well.
Our State of Conservation Tech research also discusses something called the "Hype Cycle" - the pattern that occurs when a new technology bursts onto the scene, promises to be an exciting solution, encounters challenges as new users adopt the tool and put it into practice beyond just theory, and eventually settles into its most effective state as users acquire the right skills to use it to its actual potential. Machine learning, one of the most promising technologies, is currently in the middle of its own hype cycle, and we see community members working through their own hurdles to incorporate ML into their work effectively. Despite what you may think, this Hype Cycle can also be positive for tech development, as it means that users have big ideas for new tools, and with the right resources and skills, they can work toward bringing those ideas to life. And as our community members experiences the Hype Cycle for various tools at their own paces, we hope this group will also serve as a place to discuss that process and overcome hurdles together.
Ready to discover new possibilities? Join our Emerging Tech group now and get to know your forward-thinking conservation tech peers!
Header photo: Internet of Elephants
- @capreolus
- | he/him
Capreolus e.U.
wildlife biologist with capreolus.at
- 1 Resources
- 68 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
TerrOïko
PhD Student in statistical ecology
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
TerrOïko
R&D Engineer
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @MattyD797
- | He/Him
I am studying biotic problems with abiotic intelligence. My research focus is in computational ecology within fishery acoustics, machine learning, remote sensing, and combining visual and audio species identification systems.
- 0 Resources
- 7 Discussions
- 12 Groups
- @hjayanto
- | He/Him
Your friendly Indo-Crocky-Croc
- 0 Resources
- 29 Discussions
- 16 Groups
Aeracoop & Dronecoria
Computer engineer, Drone Pilot, Seed researcher
- 1 Resources
- 30 Discussions
- 9 Groups
WILDLABS & Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
I hold a PhD in Biological Sciences and specialize in bioacoustics and passive acoustic monitoring of cetaceans in the Argentine Sea and Antarctica. Recently, I've also embraced computing to leverage technology in enhancing our conservation efforts.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Ph.D Speech-Hearing Sciences; 3D Designer/Printer interested in building/testing/deploying standardized environmental recording platforms for scientists and engineers in developing countries.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 10 Groups
Director of Icoteq Ltd, an electronics and software design consultancy developing wireless products and solutions to organisations working in the conservation, wildlife monitoring and anti-poaching sectors. Developers of the TagRanger® novel wildlife tracking products.
- 1 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 7 Groups
Technical Specialist at FFI: loves data management, maps, remote sensing & GIS for conservation
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 9 Groups
- @rowan
- | they / them
Octophin Digital
Jack of all Trades. I've been a zoo keeper, a conservation geneticist and a web developer who specialises in conservation projects and orgs.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 15 Groups
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
Frontiers in Conservation Science is calling for submissions for a Research Topic that aims at examining the paradoxical relationship that has been established in recent years between the flagships of new technology...
10 February 2023
Do you have any new methods or examples of practical applications of emerging new technologies that can help solve ecological problems? Submit a proposal to the new OA Special Feature of Ecological Solutions and...
7 February 2023
Are you excited by the potential for new technologies to help monitor the natural world? Do you enjoy communicating your passion for technology and nature with diverse audiences? We are seeking an enthusiastic...
2 February 2023
The role of no-code geospatial software in the fight against climate change
24 January 2023
WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career Vietnamese conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
11 January 2023
This position focuses on the ecology aspect of the project, while a second PhD in Ilmenau will be dealing with programming/AI development. Because of the high temporal resolution of our data, we can investigate how land...
9 January 2023
Careers
We are looking for someone who enjoys the craft of making to come and help run our London based lab.
5 January 2023
Rainforest Foundation UK is looking for a developer who wants to put their skills to use in the fight against climate change and social injustice.
19 December 2022
a technology-led solution to understanding the honeybees of the wasp world
8 December 2022
Rainforest Foundation UK is looking for a FullStack developer with an interest in environmental justice and the development of rainforest monitoring systems
6 December 2022
Conservation partnership launches new award to advance biodiversity conservation from space
5 December 2022
April 2024
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Climate Change, Community Base, East Africa Community, Emerging Tech, Software and Mobile Apps | 9 months ago | ||
Hi all! I am a mechanical engineer working in the Aerospace Engineering department at a University, and I have the opportunity to take over... |
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Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 9 months 4 weeks ago | |
Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate! |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS | 11 months ago | |
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Emerging Tech | 11 months 3 weeks ago | ||
Hi everybody 👋🏽,I'm a UX designer, and I design interfaces and improve user experiences/flows. I would love to contribute to conservation... |
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AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 1 year ago | |
Hi Jeremy, With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual... |
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Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors | 1 year ago | |
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough |
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Acoustics, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hi James - I'm working for Regen Network at the intersection of blockchain and ecosystem regeneration and am developing an Environmental Stewardship initiative that might be of... |
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Emerging Tech | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hi Andrea! Although I am a keen user and observer of the Moveapps initiative, my R or Python coding skills are next to non- existing. I am therefore not likely to be contributing... |
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Biologging, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hi all,Thank you so much for sharing the resources, these are quite insightfull |
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Emerging Tech | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes,Over the past several years, I have explored how to design engaging and useful tools for the exploration of audio recording to locate calls of a particular bird... |
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Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi Titus,If the usual syntactic foam sources aren't available, an option may be to add an empty dry housing or use a larger housing for the BRUV, just to provide the buoyancy.You... |
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Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 2 months ago |
CollarID: multimodal wearable sensor system for domesticated and wild dogs
3 May 2024 1:42am
ChatGPT for conservation
16 January 2023 10:04am
2 May 2024 4:56pm
This is so interesting - I would love to chat more about this as I've been thinking about this a lot for how we could (or shouldnt) be thinking about incorporating this into WILDLABS. Do you want to come on the Variety Hour and share more about you've been on this front at conservation evidence? Next call is on the 29th May!
2 May 2024 9:39pm
In my experience, ChatGPT-4 performs significantly better than version 3.5, especially in terms of contextual understanding. However, like any AI model, inaccuracies cannot be completely eliminated. I've also seen a video showing that Gemini appears to excel at literature reviews, though I haven't personally tested it yet. Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPiOP_CB54A.
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - Underwater Passive Acoustic Monitoring (UPAM) for threatened Andean water frogs
30 March 2024 3:54pm
5 April 2024 12:13pm
Congratulations, very exciting! Keep us updated!
7 April 2024 6:09pm
This is so cool @Mauricio_Akmentins - congrats and look forward to seeing your project evolve!
1 May 2024 5:17pm
Congratulations! My first hydromoth was just arrived yesterday and so excited! Looking forward for the update from your project!!!
Elephant Collective Behaviour Project - Principal Investigator
1 May 2024 1:59pm
The Inventory User Guide
1 May 2024 12:46pm
Introducing The Inventory!
1 May 2024 12:46pm
1 May 2024 9:26pm
1 May 2024 10:12pm
2 May 2024 3:08pm
Hiring Chief Engineer at Conservation X Labs
1 May 2024 12:19pm
Mass Detection of Wildlife Snares Using Airborne Synthetic Radar
7 January 2024 6:50am
19 April 2024 1:52pm
In my experience, the preference for trapping animals using different types of snares varies depending on factors such as traditional customs, geographical location, availability and accessibility of materials, terrain, ease of transporting materials, and the type of animal targeted, ranging from buffaloes to medium or small-sized antelope. Based on my experience working in open woodland savannah protected areas (where poachers prefer using wired snares to hunt big game and even small game) and in closed canopy rainforests (where poachers prefer using nylon snares to hunt medium to small-sized antelope). It would be great if the technology will be modified to be capable of detecting both types of snares.
24 April 2024 6:39am
Hi Godfrey, unfortunately the technology wont work on nylon snares. Radar is limited to detecting metal. What I am learning is that in Forest habitat where poachers are catching small antelope like duikers and suni's there is a higher proportion of thick nylon snares. In the areas where I operate more than 90% of the snares are metal, mainly multistranded cable (like brake cables) or single strand like fencing wire. The poachers use metal because the larger antelope like nyala, hartebeest, wildebeest, buffalo break nylon snares or can bite through them. The prefer multi-stranded wires like brake cable wire because they pull through the loop more reliably than single strand (fencing wire) and therefore are more effective. Multistranded wires are also more flexible and easier to coil up and travel with. Radio waves at around 2GHz can penetrate vegetation and forest canopy but cannot penetrate tree trunks and thick branches, so there is also a limitation there but it could be dealt with by having multiple passes on different flight paths over an area so snares shielded from detection by a tree trunk at one angle becomes detectable at another angle.
24 April 2024 7:45am
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR WILL ALSO DETECT AND LOCATE CHAINSAWS, MOTORBIKES, BICYLCLES, FIREARMS, MACHETES in fact anything metal.
I have been concentrating on trying to get funding for Airborne Sythetic Aperture Radar on the basis of snare detection for 2 reasons:
- Detecting and prcisely locating snares will have the biggest conservation impact
- Initially running the detection algorithms will take place as post processing after a flight mission in the cloud. It is therefore betterr suited to statiic targets that will still be in the location recorded during the mission.
Post processing of the radar will shift to real-time onboard processing and reporting via a satellite connection, but this would take quite a lot more development.
Program Manager: Integrating movement and camera trap data with international conservation policy
22 April 2024 10:16pm
Drop-deployed HydroMoth
2 April 2024 10:20am
5 April 2024 2:04pm
Hi Sol! This seems like an awesome project! I have a few questions in response: Where were you thinking of deploying this payload and for how long?
Regarding hydromoth recorders, there have been several concerns that have popped up in my work with deploying the them at this depth because it's a contact type hydrophone which means it utilizes the case to transmit the sound vibrations of the marine soundscape to the microphone unlike the piezo element based hydrophones.
- At 30-60m you will likely have the case leak after an extended period of time if not immediately. The O-ring will deform at this depth, especially around the hinge of the housing. The square prism shape is not ideal for deep deployments you describe.
- After that depth and really starting at about 50m, a major concern is synthetic implosion from the small air pocket of the hydromoth not having a pressure release valve and lithium ion batteries getting exposed to salt water. This type of reaction would cause your other instruments to probably break or fail as well.
- You are unlikely to get a signal with a reinforced enclosure. The signal is generated via the material and geometry of the housing. The plastic will probably deform and mess with your frequency response and sound to noise ratio. If you place it against metal, it will dampen the sound quite a lot. We tried to do this, but the sensitivity is quite low with a large amount of self noise.
A side note: for biodiversity assessments, the hydromoth is not characterized and is highly directional, so you wouldn't be able to compare sites through your standard aocustic indices like ACI and SPL.
That said if you are deploying for a short time, a hydrophone like an Aquarian H1a attached through a penetrator of a blue robotics housing that contains a field recorder like a zoom recorder may be optimal for half a day and be relatively cheaper than some of the other options. You could also add another battery pack in parrallel for a longer duration.
15 April 2024 6:53am
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your advice, this is really helpful!
I'm planning to use it in a seagrass meadow survey for a series of ~20 drops/sites to around 30 m, recording for around 10 minutes each time, in Cornwall, UK.
At this stage I reckon we won't exceed 30 m, but based on your advice, I think this sounds like not the best setup for the surveys we want to try.
We will try the Aquarian H1a, attached to the Zoom H1e unit, through a PVC case. This is what Aquarian recommended to me when I contacted them too.
Thanks for the advice, to be honest the software component is what I was most interested in when it came to the AudioMoth- is there any other open source software you would recommend for this?
Best wishes,
Sol
21 April 2024 7:10pm
Hey Sol,
No problem at all. Depending on your configuration, the Audiomoth software would have to work on a PCB with an ESP32 chip which is the unit on the audiomoth/hydromoth, so you would have to make a PCB centered around this chip. You could mimic the functionality of the audiomoth software on another chip, like on a raspberry pi with python's pyaudio library for example. The problem you would have is that the H1A requires phantom power, so it's not plug and play. I'm not too aware with the H1e, but maybe you can control the microphone through the recorder that is programmable through activations by the RPi (not that this is the most efficient MCU for this application, but it is user friendly). A simpler solution might be to just record continuously and play a sound or take notes of when your 10 min deployment starts. I think it should last you >6 hours with a set of lithium energizer batteries. You may want to think about putting a penetrator on the PVC housing for a push button or switch to start when you deploy. They make a few waterproof options.
Just somethign else that occured to me, but if you're dropping these systems, you'll want to ensure that the system isn't wobbling in the seagrass as that will probably be all you will hear on the recordings, especially if you plan to deploy shallower. For my studies in Curacao, we aim to be 5lbs negative, but this all depends on your current and surface action. You might also want to think about the time of day you're recording biodiversity in general. I may suggest recording the site for a bit (a couple days or a week) prior to your study to see what you should account for (e.g. tide flow/current/anthropogenic disturbance) and determine diel patterning of vocalizations you are aiming to collect if subsampling at 10 minutes.
Cheers,
Matt
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 – MothBox
15 April 2024 5:06am
18 April 2024 10:39am
Already an update from @hikinghack:
19 April 2024 12:00pm
Yeah we got it about as bare bones as possible for this level of photo resolution and duration in the field. The main costs right now are:
Pi- $80
Pijuice -$75
Battery - $85
64mp Camera - $60
which lands us at $300 already. But we might be able to eliminate that pijuice and have fewer moving parts, and cut 1/4 of our costs! Compared to something like just a single logitech brio camera that sells for $200 and only gets us like 16mp, we are able to make this thing as cheap as we could figure out! :)
19 April 2024 12:54pm
Gotcha, well I look forward to seeing future iterations and following along with your progress!!
Technology Trends that Would Drive Business Innovation in 2024
19 April 2024 9:27am
The rapidly evolving digital landscape and its fusion with business operations has given rise to a new buzzword: Digital Transformation. Therefore, there’s been an urgent imperative for organizations to adopt digital technologies to stay competitive. The link provides insights into technological advancements that organizations should embrace
Early Warning Systems for Human-Wildlife Conflict, Zoonotic Spillover, and Other Conservation Challenges
17 April 2024 5:43pm
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - TimeLord: A low-cost, low-power and low-difficulty timer board to control battery-powered devices
5 April 2024 3:29pm
16 April 2024 9:34am
Thanks @Freaklabs, I think you'll really enjoy getting involved with this too as we're looking for input from makers in the community to get the most from the approach and to capture features and usability ideas from a large number of people.
I've a new modular drop-off tag build using @Rob_Appleby's original SensorDrop board that I think would be great for this project too to see if we can drop different compartments, or do various different timed events with the one TimeLord board.
Most importantly, we have to make it play a MIDI version of the DoctorWho theme song when you arm the device. That has to be the #1 feature if you ask me!
16 April 2024 9:35am
Reminds me that we should look at both terrestrial and marine applications when we get stuck in to the demo builds to make sure we cover use cases
16 April 2024 10:22am
'Most importantly, we have to make it play a MIDI version of the DoctorWho theme song when you arm the device. That has to be the #1 feature if you ask me!'
Seconded!
Underwater advertisement call of the threatened Telmatobius rubigo (Anura: Telmatobiidae
6 April 2024 9:56pm
Blind Spots in Conservation Tech Management in Remote Landscapes: Seeking Your Input
20 March 2024 10:51am
22 March 2024 9:48am
Hi @lucianofoglia
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the community. What you've touched on resonates with a number of users and developers (looking at you @Rob_Appleby) who share similar concerns and are keen to address these issues.
As a beliver in open sourcing conservation technologies, to mitigate issues you've noted (maintenance of technologies / solutions, repairability, technical assistance to name but a few), really the only way to achieve this in my eyes is through the promotion of openness to enable a wide range of both technical and non-technical users to form the pool of skills needed to react to what you have stated. If they can repair a device, or modify it easily, we can solve the waste issue and promote reusability, but first they need access to achieve this and commerical companies typically shy away from releasing designs to protect against their IP that they keep in house to sell devices / solutions.
I would think for an organisation to achieve the same the community would need to help manufacturers and developers open and share hardware designs, software, repairability guides etc, but the reality today is as you have described.
One interesting conversation is around a kitemark, i.e a stamp of approval similar to the Open Source Hardware Association's OSHWA Certification), but as it's not always hardware related, the kitemark could cover repairability (making enclosure designs open access, or levels of openness to start to address the issue). Have a look at https://certification.oshwa.org/ for more info. I spent some time discussing an Open IoT Kitemark with http://www.designswarm.com/ back in 2020 with similar values as you have described - https://iot.london/openiot/
You may want to talk more about this at the upcoming Conservation Optimism Summit too.
Happy to join you on your journey :)
Alasdair (Arribada)
30 March 2024 3:57pm
Hi @Alasdair
Great to hear from you! Thanks for the comment and for those very useful links (very interesting). And for letting @Rob_Appleby know. I can't wait to hear from her.
Open source is my preference as well. And it's a good idea. But, already developing the tech in house is a step ahead from what would be the basic functional application of an organization that could manage the tech for a whole country/region.
I have witnessed sometime how tech have not added much to the efficiency of local teams but instead being an tool to promote the work of NGOs. And because of that then innovative technologies are not developed much further that a mere donation (from the local team's perspective). But for that tech to prove efficient, a lot more work on the field have to be done after. The help of people with expertise in the front line with lots of time to dedicate to the cause is essential (this proves too expensive for local NGOs and rarely this aspect is consider).
I imagine this is something that needs to come from the side closer to the donors and International NGOs. Ideally only equipment can be lend within a subscription model and not just donated without accountability on how that tech is use. Effectively the resources can be distributed strategically over many projects. Allowing to tech to be repurposed.
Sorry that I step down the technical talk, the thing is that sometimes the simplest things can make the most impact.
It would be good to know if any in the community that have spent considerable time working in conservation in remote regions, and have observed similar trends.
Thanks! Luciano
Announcing the WILDLABS Awards 2024 awardees!
26 March 2024 9:52am
11 April 2024 8:35am
12 April 2024 9:28am
15 April 2024 9:24am
How does behavior influence the use of technology for animal detection ?
22 March 2024 7:49pm
The Variety Hour: 2024 Lineup
22 March 2024 4:30pm
BirdWeather | PUC
27 October 2023 7:45pm
2 November 2023 9:20pm
I love the live-stream pin feature!
14 March 2024 10:29pm
Hi Tim, I just discovered your great little device and about to use it for the first time this weekend. Would love to be directly in touch since we are testing it out as an option to recommend to our clients :) Love that it includes Australian birds! Cheers Debbie
16 March 2024 10:47pm
Hi @timbirdweather I've now got them up and running and winding how I can provide feedback on species ID to improve the accuracy over time. It would be really powerful to have a confirmation capability when looking at the soundscape options to confirm which of the potential species it actually is or confirm it is neither to help develop the algorithms.
Also, is it possible to connect the PUC to a mobile hotspot to gather data for device that isn't close to wifi? And have it so that it can detect either wifi or hotspot when in range? Thanks!
movedesign: Shiny R app to evaluate sampling design for animal movement studies
13 March 2024 3:10pm
This "workflow allows users to evaluate a wide range of potential sampling designs, which can then serve as a solid foundation for future tracking projects, or even the evaluation of on-going and published studies."
Here's what you missed at World Wildlife Day 2024
7 March 2024 9:02pm
15 March 2024 2:42pm
Watch Now: Scaling Innovation in Conservation, WILDLABS at World Wildlife Day 2024
7 March 2024 3:32pm
International Day of Forest 2024 Webinar: Forest & Innovation
22 February 2024 2:00pm
Data Logger Suggestions
31 January 2024 1:42pm
10 February 2024 2:19am
Hi Andrea,
The OpenLog Artemis might be an option. I haven't used one of these yet, but its what I immediately thought of. Built in real time clock and IMU that records to microSD. It has four 14-bit ADCs and I2C connectors for the 'Qwiic' or 'grove' sensor boards. I'm not sure if it has programmable on/off cycles with the clock but you may find an existing project that does this.
13 February 2024 4:29pm
Thank you for the help!
Computer Vision for Ecology Workshop 2025 Call for Applications
12 February 2024 9:29pm
Bio-Logging Science Symposium
9 February 2024 3:59pm
Rapid onsite DNA test identifies bushmeat at airport
6 February 2024 3:47pm
2 May 2024 6:48am
This is an interesting discussion and something we've been grappling with at Conservation Evidence. We have begun a project to build an AI-assisted evidence synthesis pipeline using LLMs primarily to make the process of evidence synthesis more efficient as a workflow (from finding and classifying relevant scientific studies testing conservation actions, to tagging key information to speed up the writing of evidence summaries). The ultimate goal is to build a living evidence database that is able to keep up the the rapidly growing scientific literature.
Specifically regarding Chat-gpt (at least 3.5) we have found it's very poor at providing evidence-based answers to questions on conservation. The most worrying thing is that if decision-makers are using it out-of-the-box, they may feel they're getting an authoritative answer and this may exaggerate the issue of overconfidence. It often makes up sources or at least suggests it got info from a study that isn't relevant. Of course this may change with future iterations, but currently I fear it's being used without proper safeguards or knowledge of its limitations, specifically for decision support. We are trying to build a more credible NL interface, fine-tuned on the CE database that will have a built in verification model that checks the evidence sources provided, and would tailor answers based on a user's location. The challenge is reducing hallucinations as much as possible and whether ethically this is still acceptable. Ultimately, my feeling is if we don't try to build something more credible, with better safeguards, people will end up using naïve LLMs that are worse and will lead to bad decision-making.