By Dr Danilo Urzedo (CSIRO)
Summary: Digital advancements are increasingly influencing knowledge production to suggest ways of enhancing the efficiency and precision of conservation practices and policies. From environmental big data to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), a rising number of technological conservation developments are designed and deployed to inform decisions, mobilise participation, and automate labour-intensive tasks. By drawing on Global South perspectives of decoloniality, this talk will present formulations on environmental data justice and how data-driven AI tools shape the legitimacy of conservation expertise. While these conservation technologies seek to facilitate the accessibility and effectiveness of informed decisions, data-driven AI systems can also reinforce or exacerbate power asymmetries and critical injustices. This talk will emphasise the case of chatbot developments and their associated epistemic consequences for conservation decisions across varied contexts and sites.
