Tech and telecom giants deploy AI to fight illegal wildlife trade, United for Wildlife says

LONDON, June 23 — A group of leading international technology, crypto and ‌other businesses today announced plans to help stamp out the illegal trade in wildlife.

Announcement made ‌as part of a business forum convened by Prince William and The Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife during London Climate Action Week.

Companies including Google, Meta, TikTok and Alibaba commit to end trafficking on their platforms. To look for ways to eradicate online listings, including through AI-enabled detection and prevention.

Represent a fifth of the ‌global e-commerce market and 90 per cent of the ⁠world’s social media users.

Vodafone, Vodacom, Safaricom to use AI ⁠in anti-money-laundering and transaction ⁠monitoring systems across ⁠mobile money platform M-Pesa.

Crypto, blockchain analytics firms and payment companies including PayPal, TRM Labs, ⁠Chainalysis and Luno commit to disrupt financial flows linked to the illegal wildlife trade.

British Airways and Heathrow to launch a public awareness campaign about the trade.

A United Nations ⁠Environment Programme report says trade in wildlife products generates as much as US$23 billion (RM95.6 billion) annually. Estimated 1 ⁠million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction.

⁠David ⁠Fein, co-chair of United for Wildlife: “What we see from the private sector today is a recognition that ‌the illegal wildlife trade is both an environmental and a business issue.” — Reuters