WhipporWHAT?
A story of a failed attempt at artificial intelligence and a father-daughter connection.
Spring is in full bloom and the weather has been mild and beautiful on my camping trip in the Mid-Atlantic. For two nights in a row, I heard a bird song that was very unique and unidentifiable by my untrained ears. I fiercely wanted to know what kind of bird was making that song. I downloaded an app that allows you to record the bird song, upload the audio, and run an algorithm to identify the bird by its song. The next night, I sat poised with my phone and new app to capture this intriguing song I heard the previous two nights. Like clockwork, my mystery bird sang for me. I recorded two-thirty-second clips of audio and excitedly uploaded them so the algorithm could do its magic. After several excruciating minutes of artificial intelligence purgatory, the app could not identify the bird. I was defeated.
On a whim, I sent the audio to my Dad, a Renaissance man who’s always had an interest in birding. He immediately and enthusiastically identified the bird as a Whippoorwill. He told me stories of his camping trips from decades ago where he heard them all the time, especially when he was trying to sleep. He mentioned the Whippoorwill is becoming increasingly scarce. This piqued my interest.
As soon as I got off the phone with my Dad, I did what all-digital age humans do and asked Google about the Whippoorwill. I learned that the species was upgraded to near-threatened status in 2017. The populations have declined 60% since the 1970’s when my Dad was hearing them on his camping trips. Urbanization and pesticides are the most likely leading causes of the decline in Whippoorwill populations.
The idea that this beautiful bird song could be gone forever instantly made me feel connected to my Dad, who was 1000 miles from me. We got to experience a rare moment together that was fondly linked to his past.
I’m so grateful that stupid app didn’t work.
