Great snakes, an AI app you need

by Derek Rodriguez

Image: Tan Yue Jun

Snakes are fittingly slithering back into the spotlight in the Year of the Snake. For his final-year project, computer science student Tan Yue Jun is creating Snakify, a mobile app that uses deep learning to identify snake species from photos. The app isn’t just for snake sleuths hoping to caption their photos, it has life-saving potential too. By telling vipers and other venomous snakes apart from species not harmful to humans, Snakify could aid in treating snake bites. This addresses a critical need in countries like India, where snake bites lead to deaths and permanent disabilities every year.

 

---

This story was published in the Jan-Feb 2025 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.