Microsoft Sparrow, an AI tool to measure and protect biodiversity in remote places

Microsoft has presented a tool, developed by its AI for Good Laboratory, that aims to measure and protect biodiversity in the most remote places on the planet. It is about Sparrowa AI-powered edge computing solution and thought to operate autonomously in the most remote areas of the Earth. It is powered by solar energy and equipped with advanced sensors, and its mission is collect data on biodiversity from photographic traps, acoustic sensors and various other environmental detectors.

The data it collects is processed through AI models developed specifically for wildlife and based on PyTorch, which run on GPUs with low power consumption. The information obtained from the process, critical for conservation, is transmitted through low Earth orbit satellites directly to the cloud. This way, those who need and can consult it have access to recent, actionable data in real time, no matter where they are.

Thanks to solar energy, these devices, which observe and report on the health of ecosystems without altering them, can operate for long periods, minimizing their impact on the environment. The connectivity of the Sparrow solution with the aforementioned low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites allows you to transmit data regardless of the level of isolation of the ecosystem you are observing.

Sparrow is also an open source solution. From their software and hardware plans to their 3D printable designs. This approach allows research teams, NGOs and collaborators to build, implement and adapt their own Sparrow devices.

Over the next three months, several Sparrow devices will be deployed in several rural areas of North and South America. Among them Colombia, as part of the Guacamaya Project. In the second quarter of 2025, it is expected that the solution will have been perfected and its reliability guaranteed. At that time all projects, designs and project code will be made available to the public. By the end of 2025, the goal is to have Sparrow devices operational on all continentswhich function as key nodes in the global conservation network.