Well...I cannot say I am pleased about iNaturalist partnering with Google to develop GenAI. While what iNat would like to do would be incredibly helpful, it can be done by other means (namely, uh, volunteer or employed actual experts?). My main concerns are simple, and yet, unaddressed by the iNaturalist post about this project:
1) How can we be assured that our data that we share with iNaturalist will NOT be shared with Google; as if anything it seems to suggest free sharing between iNat and Google to develop things using Google's GenAI; thus Google does have access even if indirectly.
2) Will we have an opt-out option, so our data is not used in this project
In the end, nature is about community, not machines. And I do not consent to feeding any of my data into Google's GenAI for any purpose.
UPDATE: They updated their post ( https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/113184-inaturalist-receives-grant-to-improve-species-suggestions), and some of my worries are alleviated; namely, Google will not have access to our data from them and they are under no obligation to use Google's infrastructure. However, I still am dubious...for a few reasons which I won't elaborate here. There is a Q&A upcoming.
Photo is one that was used in a presentation, and one of the questions asked by a 60-something year old Doctor of Biology was "That photo is so good! Is it AI?" :blobfacepalm:
#nature #iNat #iNaturalist #AI #google #community #communityScience #science #biology #ecology #cave #photography
