Events

New grant from the Swedish Research Council Formas on Bots and Climate Misinformation

Deep Learning for the Biosphere

Could machine learning algorithms including deep learning help us make sense of our planet and the biosphere?

A number of important advances have been made in this domain, with some intriguing applications for Earth system modelling (see Markus Reichstein’s invited lecture here, and analysis of coral reef ecosystems. Can we use similar approaches to analyze natural resource management strategies, vast amounts of ocean data, and other social-ecological data? What are some opportunities and limitations? For more information, contact Victor Galaz.

Swedish NLP (Natural Language Processing) Webinars -

Climate change and large-scale language models: a panel discussion

How to use AI with image data and satellite Data - Free Online Course

Du sköra nya värld? AI, ekonomin och planeten.

Baltic Seabird AI/UX Hackathon - 21-22 November 2019

Text adapted from an AI Innovation of Sweden news story reporting on the outcomes of the Hackathon. Read the full news piece here

The hackathon showed the interesting results that can be achieved when professions from different areas of expertise share data and methods. Among the presentations were exciting applications of machine learning models on the annotated video material provided by WWF and SLU, together with ideas for how to involve and educate the public about seabirds and ocean health.

Winner of 10, 000 SEK was team SkyRoads with the following jury motivation:

"The winning team exceeded the jury's expectations by far. We are very impressed by all the smart choices made by the team to tackle the challenges, and that they really understood the problems. With hands-on solutions that could be applied right away, we are convinced that this team has already made a major contribution to this field of research."

"I am overwhelmed about what can be accomplished when experts in different fields collaborate. We've seen utterly creative solutions to complex problems", says marine researcher Jonas Hentai-Sundberg from SLU.

"We are greatly impressed and encourage by the interest, commitment and outcome of the hackathon. It has been amazing to see what can happen when people with different knowledge, expertise, perspectives and methods get together on a common challenge", says Martin Svensson, co-director AI Innovation of Sweden and continues, "Inspired by this project we hope to soon generate value to both private and public sector through similar collaborative models."

About the Baltic Seabird AI/UX Hackathon
In November, a two-day hackathon was held in Gothenburg, with the aim of accelerating the research of guillemots and about the sensitive ecosystems of the Baltic Sea. Data scientists, programmers, and UX designers teamed up with WWF, the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU), Stockholm Resilience Center, the Baltic Seabird Project, and AI Innovation of Sweden, to work out how to structure data on the seabirds.

Organization: WWF, SLU, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Baltic Seabird project, Chalmers AI Research Centre, AI Innovation of Sweden. With support from: Ocean Data Factory Sweden, SMHI, National Space Data Lab, CGIT, Annotell, Zenuity

Blockchain and Machine learning to help combat illegal fishing and forced labor in the seafood industry

Can blockchain and machine learning really help us increase fisheries traceability, help removing Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing as well as forced labour from the supply chains of some of the world’s largest fishing companies? Through a collaboration within the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship initiative (that emerged out of the Keystone Dialogues project), SRC is involved in developing and evaluating a Proof of Concept, with the ambition to expand and scale up. This work has three components underpinned by the Blockchain and machine learning algorithms: Component one addresses crew members legal eligibility. Component 2 addresses vessel positioning and legal geographic fishing locations. Component 3 addresses legal species that are targeted for harvesting compared to the species actually captured during the harvesting process. This work is a collaboration between the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the seafood company Nutreco, Unisys and Marine Instruments. For more information, contact Andrew Merrie.

Stockholm Seminar - Deep learning for a better understanding of the earth system - Professor Markus Reichstein

Markus Reichstein is director of the Biogeochemical Integration Department at the Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Professor for Global Geoecology at the FSU Jena, and Director at the Michael-Stifel-Center Jena for Data-driven and Simulation Science in Jena. His main research interests include the effect of climate variability/extreme and change on global ecosystems, in particular carbon and water cycles. He and his research group tackle these topics by combining experimental, ground- and satellite-based observations with machine-learning based data-driven and process-oriented system models in a model-data integration approach. Prof. Reichstein has authored >185 publications and has been part of the iLEAPS/IGBP Scientific Steering Committee, and lead author of the IPCC special report on Climate Extremes (SREX). Currently he is serving as member of the Thuringian panel on climate change, and chairing the Future Earth/IRDR/WCRP Knowledge Action Network “Extreme events and emergent Risks”. In 2013 he was awarded with the Max-Planck Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, and in 2018 the Piers J Sellers mid-career award on Global Environmental Change by the American Geophysical Union.

Learn more about the seminar and watch the full presentation here

Centre invited to support Sweden’s Artificial Intelligence innovation network

AI Innovation of Sweden’s objectives include accelerating applied AI research and innovation through collaboration and cross-industry sharing, developing methods and infrastructure for managing and using large quantities of data with strong focus on security, i.e. doing this in a controlled and reliable way and promoting responsible use of AI and the development of unbiased tools.

The purpose of the new partnership, effective as of 11 June 2019, is to explore the broad biosphere sustainability dimensions of the rapid progress and applications of artificial intelligence in society. By linking to leading AI thinkers and doers in Sweden, SRC, together with the Beijer Institute, aims to develop a new research agenda and collaborations in this rapidly developing issue.

“We are delighted to be able to continue to develop the thinking and science formulated by us in 2015 in the 'Biosphere Code' . Such principles for the deployment of new forms of artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly important as these technologies evolve.”

Learn more about the network here

Human-Machine-Ecology: A Workshop on the Emerging Risks, Opportunities, and Governance of Artificial Intelligence in partnership with Princeton Institute for international and regional studies

The Stockholm Resilience Center, Beijer Institute, and PIIRS GRS Research Community recently teamed up to organise a seminar and workshop to address growing concerns in the world of artificial intelligence.

The central focus of the workshop was on the ways that emerging AI-systems shape the way we perceive and respond to environmental change, and how it could fundamentally alter the ways in which humans modify ecosystems around the world and impact human wellbeing. The workshop achieved the goal of fostering fruitful discussion and laid the groundwork for writing and publishing important synthesis work. This interdisciplinary workshop brought together scholars from computer sciences, ecology, political science (amongst others), and actors from the IT-sector where these systems are currently being developed and tested on the ground.

New expertise - Danica Kragic, Professor of Computer Science at the Royal Institute of technology (KTH) joins the Stockholm Resilience Centre Science Advisory Council

Danica Kragic is a professor at the School of Computer Science and Communication at the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH. She received MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Rijeka, Croatia in 1995 and PhD in Computer Science from KTH in 2001. She has been a visiting researcher at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and INRIA Rennes. She is the Director of the Centre for Autonomous Systems.

Danica received the 2007 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Academic Career Award. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and Young Academy of Sweden.

Learn more about professor Kragic and her work here

Human-Machine Ecology and Systemic Risks

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence including intelligent infrastructure, the Internet of Things pose new and difficult challenges to governance and policy in sectors such as medicine, finance, policing, transport, and energy systems.

In practically all modern domains, such technologies increasingly serve to impose order, hierarchize needs, allocate resources, and impact the distribution of wealth and opportunity. How can we grasp possible emerging systemic risks as humans, machines and ecological systems start to interact in new ways in sectors of fundamental relevance for the biosphere, like digital farming and forestry systems? Our first conference on the topic can be found here. For more information, contact Thayer Patterson, or Victor Galaz.