Driven by demand for exotic pets, traditional medicine and luxury goods, the multi-billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade poses a serious threat to biodiversity and the survival of numerous species. Law enforcement agencies around the world face significant challenges in identifying and intercepting illegal wildlife products, particularly when only parts of animals, such as fins or shells, are involved, Lee said.
“Without the right tools, it’s almost impossible to determine whether a species is protected or not,” Lee said. “This project aims to change that.”
High-resolution melting profiles (HRM) of four shark species.
Using a method called high-resolution melting, the team is developing a low-cost test kit similar to commercially available COVID-19 tests that can quickly and accurately feed unique molecular markers into an artificial intelligence-based database of 20,000 samples from 185 protected species.
The kit will cost just under a dollar and produce results in less than three hours, making it an effective tool that could be used in ports and airports around the world, Lee said, allowing officials to determine on the spot whether wildlife is being illegally traded.
Beyond the physical identification of wildlife products, the project will build an online infrastructure to analyze social networks where illegal wildlife trade is frequently discussed. By tracking keywords, using machine learning to detect when illegal wildlife trade is being discussed, and leveraging data analytics and rapidly evolving large language artificial intelligence models, end users will gain insight into real-time results and long-term trends.
Lee said the data sets the team creates will be integrated into an open-source repository available to researchers and law enforcement. Right now, the information is scattered. Lee said the team’s work will identify the most critical nodes in trafficking networks – such as key buyers, sellers or transportation routes – that should be targeted to most effectively disrupt the trade.
Both Lee and Konrad have so far focused their research on malicious human activity. Lee has used machine learning and predictive modeling to develop algorithms that Detect fake product reviews and disinformation on the Internet. Konrad, supply chain expert, has investigated how data analytics tools could be used to disrupt the supply chains that enable human trafficking.
