One million species face extinction, and Google just threw a lifeline to 13 of them. The company's using AI tools like DeepPolisher to sequence endangered animal genomes at unprecedented speed and cost - a process that once took 13 years and $3 billion now happens in days for a few thousand dollars. Through partnerships with the Vertebrate Genomes Project and Earth BioGenome Project, Google's making this genetic data freely available to conservation researchers, with funding to expand coverage to 150 more species.
Google is racing against extinction with a new weapon: artificial intelligence that can read the genetic instruction manual of endangered animals before they disappear forever.
The tech giant revealed it's helped sequence the complete genomes of 13 endangered species spanning mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles - from Colombia's critically endangered cotton-top tamarin to African penguins facing collapse in their native South African waters. The genomes are now freely available to conservation researchers worldwide, according to a company announcement posted Monday.
This isn't just archiving animal DNA for posterity. Scientists predict one million species may be at risk of extinction, and without capturing their genetic information now, we risk destabilizing ecosystems that underpin food security, climate regulation, and the biological foundations for modern medicine. "If we don't accurately capture their genetic information now, we risk losing many of them forever," Google product managers Lizzie Dorfman and Andrew Carroll wrote in the blog post.
The breakthrough hinges on AI tools Google's been developing for over a decade. DeepPolisher, DeepVariant, and DeepConsensus have collapsed what once seemed impossible into routine science. Sequencing the first human genome took 13 years and cost $3 billion. Today, Google's AI can sequence humans, animals, and plants in days for a few thousand dollars with what the company calls "stellar accuracy."
