Google has begun genetic mapping using AI of potentially extinct species

Scientists are now warning that a million species of animals and plants may disappear in the coming decades. The significance goes far beyond the loss of individual species. Each extinct species takes with it a unique store of genetic information, a sort of biological instruction book built over millions of years. This information is essential for understanding ecosystems, dealing with climate change, developing more resilient agriculture and even establishing future medicines and medical treatments. The main problem so far has been technological and economic. Sequencing the genome of an entire species was considered an almost impossible task until not many years ago, a process that lasted for years and cost huge sums.

This is where artificial intelligence comes into play. Google has harnessed a series of advanced tools it has developed, including DeepVariant and DeepConsensus to fundamentally change the field of conservation genomics. If in the past it took almost a decade and billions of dollars to map one genome, today the same operation can be performed in a few days, at a cost of only thousands of dollars and with an accuracy that is considered unprecedented. From the point of view of the conservation community, this is a dramatic change, one that allows for the first time to operate on a large scale.

As part of the collaboration with international scientific projects, including the Earth BioGenome Project and the Vertebrate Genomics Laboratory, Google has so far assisted in sequencing the genomes of 13 species that are in serious danger of extinction. Meanwhile, additional funding was recently announced that will enable the mapping of 150 additional species, with all data released as open source to the scientific community and the general public.

Among the species that have already been fully genetically sequenced, you can also find animals that are known to the Israeli public. The Nubian gazelle, which lives in the desert landscapes of Israel and is in danger of global extinction, is one of them. Next to it appear particularly rare species such as the white-crowned tamarin, one of the rarest monkeys in the world, as well as the sock zebra and the African penguin, whose populations have suffered a sharp decline in recent decades.

One of the prominent cases that illustrate the potential of the new approach comes from New Zealand. There, researchers were able to analyze the genome of all living individuals of the kakapo, the nocturnal and least flighty parrot in the world. Based on the genetic data, a precise breeding program was built, which succeeded in returning the species from a state of almost certain extinction to a path of gradual recovery. This case is now considered a proof of feasibility that AI-guided genomics can save entire species.

Beyond the preservation itself, the data collected opens a wide window for understanding the history of life on Earth. Comparing the genomes of different species allows scientists to learn how environmental adaptations have developed, how evolutionary mechanisms have worked over millions of years, and how these insights can be applied in fields such as agriculture, public health and disease prevention.

Google emphasizes that the impact of technology is measured by its ability to solve problems in the real world. Therefore, it was decided to grant funding and support to the research led by researchers from Korfler University, with the aim of expanding the pool of available genomes and bringing humanity closer to a comprehensive biological catalog of all known species on Earth.