AI-Altered Images on Birdwatching Forums Are Putting Scientific Research at Risk

Al-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk

For many birdwatchers, recording a species outside its normal range is the holy grail. In the UK, the discoveries often make national headlinesThe western reef heron, for example, usually found in Africa and southern Europe, spotted in a seaside town in north Wales in June, which was widely celebrated on birding forums. But a new scourge is threatening to disrupt the fun: AI slop. Scientists are appealing to birders to limit their use of AI when editing images over fears that it could undermine the credibility of popular citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist and Macaulay Library, which are routinely used in scientific research to monitor species' habitat range. The rise of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini has led to a sharp increase in fake and enhanced images of rare and celebrated birds across wildlife photography forums. Users can create high-quality fake images in seconds - or enhance a photograph by asking the AI to remove a branch or leaf that might be obscuring part of the subject, which can inadvertently introduce significant changes. In a recent commentary in the science journal Nature, researchers warned that hundreds of fake images have already been discovered on popular databases for recording species. They said that the true scale of the issue is unknown - as many could go undetected - and could contaminate records collected by the public. "My experience of looking at Facebook these days is that a huge volume of wildlife photos now are simply AI-generated imagery," said Dr Alexander Lees, an ecologist at Manchester Metropolitan University who authored the journal article. "The idea that we could maybe use those photos to help us understand where species are in space and time is very difficult." Outright hoaxes remain rare and are often easy to spot, said Lees - nobody is falling for a toucan sighting in Siberia - but he says birders often use AI to edit and improve an image, and the algorithm can then introduce parts from different bird species to create the new image. Lees points to the example of a false sighting of a red-winged blackbird in central Brazil, which is usually found in North America and had never been seen in this area of Brazil until the reported sighting. The bird was, in fact, an epaulet oriole - a common new world bird species - but the photographer had asked an AI platform to make the picture "look better", which is when parts of the red-winged blackbird were added, resulting in the false sighting. "Wildlife photographers can be quite obsessed with getting a beautiful photo, but there's a risk that the image might actually cause problems down the line when AI has been used to edit it," said Lees. Citizen science organisations are still working to understand the scale of the issue. On iNaturalist, a social network where nature enthusiasts can record sightings of plants and animals, just 1,400 of the more than 610m images on the platform have been flagged for AI use. From monitoring how plants and animals move in response to climate breakdown to recording new behaviour in species, dozens of discoveries have been made using citizen science. Tony Iwane, iNaturalist's director of community support, who was a co-author on the Nature paper, said most of these cases were unlikely to be malicious, but appealed to users to be vigilant. "On platforms like ours, regular people are posting information that a scientist could probably never get at scale. It is also almost like a sensor of what is happening on Earth in real time: are plants flowering early? Are species moving north as the climate warms? The more we know about where species are, the better informed we can be as conservationists. But the information needs to be accurate," he said.

Scientists Warn Wildlife Photographers' AI-Enhanced Bird Photos Could Threaten Research

Scientists have warned that the increasing use of AI editing tools by wildlife photographers seeking the perfect image could threaten the reliability of bird research. According to a report by The Guardian, researchers are urging wildlife photographers to be cautious when using AI to edit images shared on birding platforms and online forums. Scientists fear that the AI-enhanced photos could undermine the credibility of widely used citizen science databases, including iNaturalist and the Macaulay Library, which help researchers track species distributions and changes in habitats. In a recent commentary published in the science journal Nature and cited by The Guardian, researchers warned that hundreds of fake images have already been identified on popular species-recording databases. However, they say that the full extent of the problem remains unclear, as many altered images may not be detected and could affect records collected by members of the public. 'Obsessed with Getting a Beautiful Photo' The growing use of generative AI tools has contributed to a rise in fake and modified images of rare and notable bird species across wildlife photography communities. While some users create entirely artificial images, others use AI tools to make small edits, such as removing branches or leaves blocking a bird in a photograph. These changes can unintentionally alter important details within the image. "Wildlife photographers can be quite obsessed with getting a beautiful photo, but there's a risk that the image might actually cause problems down the line when AI has been used to edit it," Dr Alexander Lees, an ecologist at Manchester Metropolitan University who authored the journal article, tells The Guardian Lees highlighted the case of a false sighting of a red-winged blackbird in central Brazil. The species is typically found in North America and had never previously been recorded in that part of Brazil. The bird was later identified as an epaulet oriole, a common New World bird species, but the photographer had asked an AI platform to make the image "look better." During the editing process, features of a red-winged blackbird were added to the image, creating a false record.. "My experience of looking at Facebook these days is that a huge volume of wildlife photos now are simply AI-generated imagery," Lees adds. "The idea that we could maybe use those photos to help us understand where species are in space and time is very difficult." Citizen science organizations are still trying to determine how widespread the issue is. On iNaturalist, a social network where nature enthusiasts can record observations of plants and animals, only 1,400 of the platform's more than 610 million images have been flagged for AI use so far. Image creditsHeader photo licensed via Depositphotos.