The researchers combined real images of trees from iNaturalist and the Auto Arborist Dataset with AI-generated images, then fed different combinations into a standard image-recognition model to see whether the synthetic images improved its ability to identify trees.
Synthetic images improved the model's ability to recognize trees when real images were limited, suggesting that AI-generated images could help supplement real-world data when photographs are scarce.
Lake said it's important that the potential of AI-generated images for these kinds of conservation efforts not be overstated.
In the study, he and his collaborators found that the synthetic images were less effective than real images overall in training the image-recognition model.
Real images contributed by everyday people provide that missing information.