>> You're not going to want to miss this episode of the AI Show.
We talk to Saumya Soni and the cool things he's doing with AI,
and she's only in high school. Make sure you tune in.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Hello my friends. Thank you so much for being here.
I'm here with Saumya. Why don't you introduce yourself, my friend?
>> Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
My name is Saumya,
and I am a senior in high school,
and I'm also the CEO and founder of
a non-profit called AI for Environment.
The mission for this non-profit is to
use technologies such as AI,
BI, and IoT to generate
awareness of and solve global environmental challenges.
I believe that AI has the potential to transform and revolutionize
the world on a path of progression
and prosperity for all living things.
That's why I decided to create this non-profit.
>> That's amazing.
>> Yeah. I also love exploring the world around me.
I have been to 31 countries and it's so
amazing to see the culture and diversity all around the world.
>> It feels like I need to start living life like you Saumya.
That's amazing. What inspired you to start all of this?
>> Ever since I was young,
I've always been passionate about doing something
meaningful for the environment and
saving living organisms like birds and
animals from the harmful effects of global warming.
I first began the expansion of my knowledge by taking time
to learn about the impacts of global warming on the environment.
From there I looked at
other factors which contribute to global warming,
such as this scarcity of resources and ozone layer depletion,
deforestation, and species depletion.
I also took an environmental science course
at Stanford and after that,
I became inspired by Microsoft AI for Earth program.
From that, then I decided to use the potential of
artificial intelligence to solve environmental issues.
Therefore, that led to me now
creating the AI for Environment non-profit.
>> This is really cool. You brought along a video,
I'm going to go ahead and show it,
so people can get a sense for
what it is that you built. You okay with that?
>> Yes, go ahead.
>> Let's do it.
>> Hi everyone. My name is Saumya Soni,
and I am a high-school junior in Washington.
Other than being a high-school junior,
I am also the CEO and founder of
a non-profit called AI for Environment.
Let's first talk about AI for Environment.
This non-profit is on a mission to use
technologies including AI, IoT,
and Business Intelligence to generate awareness
of and solve global environmental challenges.
Together we can make a difference.
This non-profit, I created AI for Birds,
which is an interactive bird recognition phone
and Web App which can identify a bird in real-time.
Now it's time for you-all to
bring out your phones as well and follow along.
After I click on AI for birds,
and after clicking all the "Start Now's" and click here's,
we can see that this is the homepage.
In this app, you can see a bird attribute report.
Again, we can click on
the "Endangered Category" status
and click "Zoom in" to get a better view,
click on "African gray" and as we can see,
this African gray parrot is found in Angola, Africa mainly.
We can also click on,
let's say, the "Great Green Macaw."
As we can see,
it is mainly found in Costa Rica.
Along with displaying all the unique attributes
about the Great Green Macaw,
there's also fun fact down here below.
Now we can go to the record tab,
and we can click on choose an image.
Now, we want to do a real-time bugger condition application.
Let's click on camera and
then let's search up a random bird species,
let's say the mallard duck.
I have it open right here.
I'm just going to take a picture of this
and let's see if it identifies it correctly.
Let's say this random picture.
I'm going to click "Use Photo" and then show results.
As you can see,
it identified it correctly within 98 percent probability that this
is the mallard duck using Microsoft Custom Vision AI.
In conclusion, I believe this app can ignite an appreciation and
passion for birds with
all the interactive Power BI visuals and fun fats.
It's time to understand
the detrimental effects of global warming,
so we can help prevent it.
With increased awareness around the importance of birds,
we can all be inspired to fight climate change.
For more information about this bird recognition condition app,
please go to aiforbirds.com,
which is the first link.
To learn more about what
this AI for Environment non-profit is doing,
please go to the second link at aiforenvironment.org. Thank you.
>> Well, this is impressive.
I wasn't doing stuff like this in high school, that's for sure.
How did you figure all of this out?
>> With all my passion and love for birds,
I always wanted to raise awareness and make
a positive impact on these amazing species.
I first started learning
about data science and AI through courses at
my school and also trying to reach
out to summer courses such as Inspire AI.
I also reached out and took courses on Udemy for Power BI.
After I learned about how I could use Power BI,
I started with data set of birds from open data sources,
and I created simple reports with the AI
for Birds app using Microsoft Custom Vision AI and Power BI.
I believe that AI has the
potential to accelerate global efforts to
protect the environment due to the intriguing behaviors of birds.
Therefore, I got inspired and lifted to create an app which can
identify any bird that you were captivated by in real-time.
Again, that's why I built this app to raise
awareness of the heart-breaking reality
which most birds face around the world.
>> I mean, this is impressive.
Let's talk about the AI,
which I am a huge fan of.
How hard was it to set all of it up?
>> I did run into challenges,
but it was very encouraging from my parents,
encouraging me throughout the way,
and I'm very grateful for that.
Initially, I first researched about bird populations and
their global trends from the data
that contains information for the past 24 years.
I then analyzed this data sets and
created interactive visuals using Power BI.
I also use cognitive services with Microsoft Custom Vision AI to
upload 19,000 images from 315 bird species.
Then things just started to get
aligned as I moved forward with my app development.
I'm so proud of the work.
>> You should be. It's really cool.
You've mentioned briefly that there were some challenges.
Can you give us some insight into the challenges you run into?
>> Yes, initially,
with fewer images being trained in the model,
the accuracy was not as good.
Initially, I was like,
Let me see how good my app is.
I took my phone out and took a picture of a dove that I found,
and it identified it as a crow.
I was like I need to train this more.
Then I added more images and as I said before,
I got to a point of 19,000 bird images.
Now thankfully the model is more accurate.
Along with this challenge,
I did face other challenges.
I believe that that's the best part of developing a product,
seeing, identifying those challenges, and overcoming them.
After getting positive feedback from a non-profit in
Mexico and the Dominican Republic to create a Spanish version.
I also launched a new version
of the app with three different languages.
Now AI for Birds is in English, Spanish, and Hindi.
>> Again, super impressed.
I'm very curious to learn about some of
the stuff you've learned along
the way that maybe you weren't expecting.
>> I believe the biggest takeaway from
this project is that artificial intelligence
can pave the way towards pursuing
the Sustainable Development Goals for protecting our environment.
I really believe that I learned through this journey that
leveraging AI and IoT technologies
can help enhance environmental sustainability.
I believe that change is
necessary and with change comes compassion.
Along with adding technical attributes to this web app,
I also wanted to help build
an understanding and empathy towards them so I
included fun facts and interesting statistics so that people
can have a change
being sparked within them when they're using the app.
>> I mean this is so cool.
What's next for you?
What are you working on next now that you've done this?
>> Right now, currently I'm partnering with a big non-profit
in India called [FOREIGN].
I'm also working with
the Microsoft Azure Foreign Beats team
along with farmers in India.
All together we're using
this innovative Farm Beats technology to help
farmers in India increase farm productivity and food
yield while utilizing minimum national resources.
I think that it's really important that we find
efficient ways for efficient farming because as time progresses,
we're going to have to increase our food yield
dramatically in the upcoming years.
Coming up with sustainable approaches
is key to also helping the environment.
We're using this by using AI,
IoT, satellite imagery, and weather information.
It's really exciting because all this data can be used to predict
what crop to sow and where to sow
it depending on different variables like temperature,
humidity, soil moisture, etc.
With this, we are actually launching a new AI-first smart firms
app for farmers in India
this week so stay tuned for that. I'm really excited.
>> Holy, this is again, super impressed.
I'm really excited to see what you do in the future,
whenever you have your big building,
please think of me.
When I retire, I will be the janitor at your building.
Wonderful confession.
Where can folks go to find out more?
>> Yes, to find more about my non-profit,
you can go to simple aiforenvironment.org and to
learn more about AI For Birds, it's aiforbirds.com.
Stay tuned there for future projects.
>> Well, this is awesome.
Thank you so much for spending some time with us Saumya.
Super impressed, I'm super-excited.
Whatever you need from me, you let me know.
>> Thank you so much. It was a pleasure
to have to be here. Thank you.
>> Awesome, we'll see you next time.
>> Bye.
>> [MUSIC]