SWAROVSKI OPTIK recently unveiled the AX Visio, hailed as the world's first 'smart' binocular (see Mike Alibone's review). Coming in at a buttock-clenching £3,820, these "AI-supported binoculars combine outstanding SWAROVISION quality with digital intelligence" (or so the marketing proclaims). This is the company's second foray into the world of AI. The first, the dG that launched a few years ago and linked with the Merlin Bird ID app, seemed to flop, but its developers pressed on regardless.
Brilliantly, you can use the AX Visio with your eyes closed. Just point your bins at a group of pigeons and the identification function will tell you what they are. Forget all that mucking about with looking or, heaven forbid, thinking, to go birding now you don't even need the bird to scan your retinas. You can concentrate on eating your sandwiches while the optics do the hard work for you. Excellent.
Everything is smart nowadays. Technology is so sophisticated that serendipitously, while writing this, I received an email from SWAROVSKI OPTIK advertising its new product. Why did I receive it at 8 am on a Thursday morning? Algorithms have decided that this was the best time. On social media, AI has decided which friends I should engage with and influenced my breakfast by suggesting porridge recipes. In January, AI decreed that this 33-year-old British woman must want to see exercise apps to make me skinnier or holidays abroad to make me warmer. In December, it determined I must eat cheese, buy presents and drink fancy gin (it wasn't wrong).
A new binocular from SWAROVSKI OPTIK identifies the birds seen for you, but how good is this for enhancing bird ID skills?
Some developments in AI have been useful for birders, an example being the widely used Merlin Bird ID app (see Birdwatch 375: 21). And we must be wary of an over-reliance on the 'old ways', recognising that notebook sketches have evolved into high-resolution photographs, and that sound-recording technologies have unlocked entirely new species. Using AI technologies is safer, cheaper and in some cases more reliable, especially when backed up by human expertise and research.
One of the scarier aspects of modern tech is how easy it is to make things up. I recently spoke to an app developer and the conversation turned to species that were not widely photographed or easy to study. How do you depict them? I was alarmed by his confident reply that in the absence of a good photograph, graphic artists could now just fill in the blanks, taking feather patterns and the like to imagine what the bird was assumed to look like. This has already gone too far, with many social media pages dedicated to digital graphic creations of completely made-up birds (often with six toes or insane plumage features) which are touted as real species. Thousands of people comment and share, harping on about the beauty of the natural world without realising that they're looking at something as fantastical as a unicorn.
The development of smart optics was inevitable, but AI has gone far enough. The dependence on self-checkouts, driverless cars and so on is going to backfire, not to mention fewer jobs, social isolation, and in the case of birding, the loss of exploration, self-discovery and enjoyment. Perhaps we should give up on going outdoors entirely and walk through virtual-reality scenes with the birds conveniently annotated?
Ultimately, while I can tolerate my phone, laptop and watch being more intelligent than me, I draw the line at my binoculars having a higher IQ.
- This column first appeared in the March 2024 edition of Birdwatch. To be the first to read the magazine each month, take out a subscription to Birdwatch, or get the magazine alongside your bird news by subscribing to either Bird News Ultimate (paper magazine) or Bird News Ultimate Plus (digital access).
