Thousands of animals including elephants, tigers, rhinos, and gorillas are poached each year. Researchers at the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society have long been applying AI to protect wildlife. Initially, computer scientists were using AI and game theory to anticipate the poachers' haunts, and now they have applied artificial intelligence and deep learning to spot poachers in near real-time.

Poachers are normally active at night. While tools such as infrared cameras are used to monitor living organisms, since poachers and animals they are hunting both give off...

By Jean Kumagai

The elephant’s new protector is PAWS, a machine-⁠learning and game-theory system that predicts where poachers are likely to strike.

Every year, poachers kill about 27,000 African elephants—an astounding 8 percent of the population. If current trends continue, these magnificent animals could be gone within a decade.

The solution, of course, is to stop poachers before they...