Artificial intelligence

AI models that help us monitor the environment

We build models that learn from your data, which helps our scientists spot trends earlier, recognize wildlife faster and turn large datasets into clear answers.

Your data

Models are built for you from your data.

Experts in the loop

Biologists label the training data and review what the models find.

Runs where it's needed

In the cloud, on our own servers, or on a small device out in the field.

Private by design

We can host models on our own hardware so sensitive data never leaves.

What we're building

Three ways AI is already helping our work

Predictive analytics

Forecasting water quality before it becomes a problem

Our models combine historical water sampling with weather, air quality and water level data to forecast key effluent measures such as pH, ammonia and suspended solids. Site teams get an early warning and time to adjust, instead of finding out from a lab result days later.

In use for a client site
Wildlife Detection

Recognizing species at risk from their calls

Field recorders capture thousands of hours of audio, leading to time-consuming manual review. Our models sort through the noise to pick out the species we're looking for. We have successfully deployed a model on our biota device to recognize a species at risk and will be working on expanding to more species at risk.

Successful deploy in 2026
A little brown bat resting on a tree branch
Wildlife by image

Sorting trail camera photos in minutes, not days

Trail cameras collect thousands of photos, and most of them are empty. Our tools filter out the blanks, flag people and vehicles, and suggest the species in each shot so biologists only review the images that matter.

Pilot
A moose standing in a coastal bog in Forteau, Labrador, outlined by a model's detection box
How we build models

Grounded in expertise

Good models start with good data. SEM's experts validate models before deployment.

1

Collect

Field crews and devices gather audio, imagery, scans and samples.

2

Label

Our biologists and technicians mark up examples so the model learns.

3

Train and test

We train, then check results against real field conditions before anything is used.

4

Deploy and improve

Models run in GeMS, on our servers or on our biota devices, and get better with every season.

AI that keeps your data in-house

Not every dataset should go to a frontier AI model provider. We have a mix of deployment and inference options, including on our own hardware in Newfoundland, so confidential project data stays on-premises while teams use AI to work faster.

AI at the edge

Some of our models are small enough to run on a device in the field. That means answers on site, in near-real-time.