Broadening the database to include rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal and Hawaiian monk seal could help inform conservation efforts to save those species, she said.“For mobile marine mammals that move around a lot and are hard to photograph in the water, we need to be able to identify individuals.”Musk plans to relaunch Twitter premium service, againMusk says granting 'amnesty' to suspended Twitter accountsUS FCC bans sales, import of Chinese tech from Huawei, ZTETwitter, others slip on removing hate speech, EU review saysSealNet is designed to automatically detect the face in a picture, crop it and recognize it based on facial patterns such as eyes and nose shape, as it would a human.Using artificial intelligence to study them is a way to bring conservation into the 21st century, said Jason Holmberg, executive director of Wild Me, an Oregon-based company that works to bring machine learning to biologists.“If they could recognize seals, and recognize them from year to year, that would give us lots of information about movement, how much they move from site to site.”The Colgate researchers are also working with FruitPunch, a Dutch artificial intelligence company, to improve some aspects of SealNet to encourage wider use.“Harbor seals are an important indicator species for the ecosystem around them.”___Follow Patrick Whittle on Twitter: @pxwhittle___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations."