用AI拯救大象（上）
A few years ago, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, published the results of something called the Great Elephant Census, which counted all the savanna elephants in Africa.
几年前，微软的建立者之一保罗·艾伦，发表了一个称为“大象数量普查"结果，其中对非洲的每一头草原象进行了计数。
What it found rocked the conservation world: In the seven years between 2007 and 2014, Africa's savanna elephant population decreased by about a third and was on track to disappear completely from some African countries in as few as 10 years.
这份结果震惊了世界:从2007到2014这七年间，非洲草原象的数量下降了三分之一，而且在某些非洲国家十年内就很有可能彻底灭绝。
To reverse that trend, researchers landed on a technology that is rewriting the rules for everything from our household appliances to our cars: artificial intelligence.
为了遏制这一趋势，研究员们开发了一门技术，它正在重新改写各种规则，从家用电器到汽车：即人工智能。
AI's ability to find patterns in enormous volumes of information is demystifying not just elephant behavior but human behavior — specifically poacher behavior — too.
AI可以从大量信息中找到规律这一能力不仅正在帮我们解读大象的行为，同时也在解读人类的行为——尤其是偷猎行为。
"AI can process huge amounts of information to tell us where the elephants are, how many there are," said Cornell University researcher Peter Wrege.
”AI可以处理大量的信息然后告诉我们大象的位置以及它们的数目，“康纳尔大学的研究员彼特·雷吉说道。
"And ideally tell us what they are doing."
”并且可以准确地告诉我们它们正在做什么。“
There are two kinds of elephants in Africa: savanna elephants, which were counted by Allen's census, and forest elephants, which the census couldn't account for because that elephant lives beneath a thick rainforest canopy.
非洲有两种大象:草原象，它们已经被艾伦统计过了，还有就是森林象，这是艾伦没法统计的，因为它们生活在茂密雨林的遮盖下。
Even at the level of the jungle, Wrege says, losing a forest elephant is easy to do.
及时就站在丛林地面上，雷吉说道，也很容易跟丢一头森林象。
"Sometimes you see them, let's say, 15 meters [16 yards] away from you and then they move 5 meters into the forest and you can't see them," he said.
”有时你看见它们了，比如说，离你15米（16码）然后它们朝林子里走个五米，你就看不到了，”他说。
"Somehow they just disappear."
“有时候它们不知道去哪儿了。”
Researchers at Cornell University have been studying the forest elephant for years, trying to figure out — like Allen did with the savanna elephant — how many there are and how fast they are being killed.
康奈尔大学的研究员们已经研究森林象多年了，他们试图—像保罗统计草原象一样—统计出还有多少森林象以及它们被猎杀的情况。
Given how stealthy the forest elephants are, Wrege began to think that rather than look for them, maybe he should try something a little different: Maybe he should listen for them.
考虑到森林象有多神秘，雷吉开始思考，相比于寻找它们，也许他应该试试不一样的做法:也许他应该去听它们的声音。
To do this, Wrege had 50 custom audio recorders made.
为了做到这一点，雷吉制作了50台特制录音机。
He divided the rainforest into 25 square kilometer grids and headed to Central Africa.
他把雨林划分为25平方公里一格的网格，然后进入了中非。
His team placed one recorder in every grid square about 23 to 30 feet up in the treetops, just a little higher than an elephant could reach with its trunk while standing on its hind legs.
他的团队在每一个格子中大约23到30英尺高的树冠上放了一台录音机，这个高度刚好是大象用后腿站立时伸长鼻子够不到的。