## **Progress since GG19**

### 1. Taina - An Indigenous AI Data Assistant

- **Lesson Learnt**: **Data collection needs to be inclusive**. In October 2023, we travelled to the Xingu River in Brazil, and taught the Indigenous Kayapo people the use of our data gathering methods. From this experience, we've learnt that traditional data collection methods—such as filling out forms or how we labeled species groups (“plants” and “animals”) — were inadequate and not the best options for indigenous groups, like the Kayapo, as it does not take into consideration their way of living and how they perceive things. We’ve also learned that oral history is their primary transfer of community knowledge.
- **Solution:** We've developed "Taina," an AI-assistant Telegram bot which allows communities to talk using natural language to the bot to input data, collecting and preserving indigenous knowledge. Currently, Taina is available in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. It leverages a customizable LLM backend, and all data is stored locally in the stewardship of the communities.
- Taina is currently deployed with local riverside and Indigenous communities in Rio Negro, Brazil - including the Satare-Mawe, Tikuna, Muru and Munduruku People. Watch our [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we0wY22Yk34) on Taina, or read more in our [blog](https://gainforest.substack.com/p/meettaina-gainforests-new-ai-bot?triedRedirect=true).


### **2. Participatory Citizen Science**

- Together with ETH Zurich AI Center, we've hosted monthly conferences in Zurich, Switzerland, bringing together over 100+ attendees each time: summit.biodivx.org
- We are hosting the largest Environment + AI Hackathon together with IBM to work on open science and environmental insights: hack.biodivx.org
- We host online monthly events to gradually introduce our new technologies (such as Taina), to communities, citizen scientists, and biodiversity enthusiasts around the world.

### 3. 5 new communities onboarded

- We are consistently updating and co-designing with our communities. In the past three months, we have deployed eDNA sampling in the Masungi Georeserve, eco-acoustic AudioMoths in Kenya and Rwanda, and collected data in Brazil.

### **4. The Green Globe is (finally) mobile-friendly!**

- We are consistently updating our green globe platform, allowing it to be faster, and display more visual information. 