A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Dataset

Birders and machine learning researchers have forged an unlikely friendship: birders rely on advancements in technology to bring them closer to nature, while machine learning experts rely on the slow, methodical research that birders love to do. But what has this alliance meant for the relationship between birders and their environments, and for the birds themselves, who are so stubbornly resistant to becoming data? In this episode, we explore the ways that the natural environment relates to generative AI, the ways it pushes back, and how we can find hope in both the pace of technology and in unhurried birdsong.