Using AI to detect coral reef’s sounds of life

All ears: A researcher deploying a hydrophone for a pilot project using AI to identify the health of a coral reef in South Sulawesi province, Indonesia. — Reuters

WHEN a team of scientists listened to an audio clip recorded underwater off islands in central Indonesia, they heard what sounded like a campfire.

Instead, it was a coral reef teeming with life, according to a study conducted by scientists from British and Indonesian universities published last month, in which they used hundreds of such audio clips to train a computer programme to monitor the health of a coral reef by listening to it.