THE BRIEF by Maya Plentz
Maya Plentz is the founder and chief editor of THE BRIEF, a weekly newsletter with exclusive interviews and analysis focusing on tech policy, and the global digital economy. She has over two decades of experience in the news media sector. Her work has aired at UN Radio, BBC World, RFI and Bloomberg TV.
During her tenure as a producer and presenter at Bloomberg TV in New York, she covered Google, Microsoft, and the 2000 dot-com boom. She also produced a daily segment on science, medicine, and technology.
At the UN News and Media Division in New York, she served as a broadcast producer and website news editor, conducting interviews with UN officials, government representatives, and diplomats. Her programs reached millions of viewers weekly across the globe, airing on UN national broadcast partners in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
As a member of the European Commission High-Level Group of Experts, under the leadership of Pascal Lamy, former WTO Director General and Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, she was tasked with reviewing the EU's research and innovation funding framework, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. She provided advisory on communication strategies to promote innovation funding at the EU.
THE BRIEF by Maya Plentz
Rainforest Connection Uses AI to Protect the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest Biodiversity and Halt Illegal Logging
I interviewed Bourhan Yassin, CEO of Rainforest Connection, a company that applies AI to acoustics for data insights to better inform conservation, preserve biodiversity, and protect the rainforests from illegal logging. They are currently working in 80 countries, including Brazil, where most of their work is happening.
RFCx works with audio to monitor species of wild birds for instance, to analyse the sounds of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, and works with indigenous communities to help them identify illegal logging, and to catalogue species to protect biodiversity.
They use satellites developed by Swarm, that operates ultra-small satellites for IOT devices, a company that was acquired by SpaceX in 2021.
We spoke about their projects in Brazil and how they are funded, and how Google.org supports their work alongside other philanthropic organizations.
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