AI for Good, Bees, and Why I Joined the Urban Bee Lab Board

There is something that helps provide roughly one out of every three bites of food we eat, yet many people spend a surprising amount of time trying to eliminate it from their environment.

Pollinators are routinely exposed to pesticides, lose habitat to development, and struggle to find food in landscapes increasingly dominated by turf grass and ornamental plants that offer little ecological value. Most of this happens without malicious intent. People want beautiful yards, comfortable outdoor spaces, and environments where they feel safe.

Pollinators, however, need access to flowering plants, diverse habitats, and places where they can complete the work that has supported ecosystems for millions of years.

Most people care deeply about the environment and want healthy ecosystems. The difficulty is that much of the work pollinators perform happens out of sight. Few people think about where bees find food, how habitat changes over time, or how local ecosystems support the plants, wildlife, and agricultural systems that communities depend on. It is difficult to appreciate something that is largely invisible.

Urban Bee Lab is working to change that. I’ve always loved bees, but I joined the board because I was fascinated by the organization’s use of AI, data, and DNA analysis to better understand pollinators and the ecosystems that support them. After spending much of my career around emerging technologies, I was intrigued by the idea that some of the most interesting applications of artificial intelligence might not be found in business processes or productivity gains, but in helping us better understand the natural world around us.

The Honey DNA Map is a perfect example. Every jar of honey contains traces of DNA from the plants visited by the bees that produced it. By analyzing those genetic signatures, researchers can create a picture of local forage sources, plant diversity, and ecosystem health. What appears to be a simple jar of honey becomes a record of an entire landscape, revealing relationships between pollinators and plants that would otherwise remain hidden.

You can explore the project here: Urban Bee Lab Honey DNA Map

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I love the idea that something so familiar can contain so much information. A jar of honey becomes a snapshot of biodiversity and a way to better understand the environments that support pollinators. Questions that once required extensive observation can now be explored through genetic analysis, creating new opportunities for researchers, conservationists, and communities to see the natural world with greater clarity. Even better, participation is not limited to researchers. Anyone can order a testing kit and contribute data that helps expand our understanding of pollinator ecosystems.

That same philosophy extends into Urban Bee Lab’s work with artificial intelligence.

Pollinator research generates enormous amounts of information, and the relationships between species, habitats, weather patterns, forage availability, and ecosystem health are extraordinarily complex. AI creates opportunities to identify patterns, accelerate analysis, and make scientific information more accessible to researchers, educators, beekeepers, and communities. Rather than replacing expertise, it expands our ability to learn from increasingly complex datasets and uncover relationships that might otherwise remain buried in the data.

Learn more about the AI initiative here: Urban Bee Lab AI Platform

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What appeals to me most about both initiatives is that the technology serves a larger purpose. The goal is not AI for the sake of AI or data for the sake of data. The goal is a better understanding of pollinators, healthier ecosystems, and more informed decisions about conservation, habitat restoration, and community planning. Better information creates better visibility, and better visibility creates opportunities for better outcomes.

The more time I spend learning about bees, the more I appreciate how much work they do without drawing attention to themselves. They support food systems, biodiversity, and ecosystems that affect all of us whether we realize it or not. Helping protect pollinators begins with understanding them, and understanding begins with curiosity, science, and a willingness to look more closely at systems that are easy to take for granted.

That combination of conservation, science, and technology is what brought me to Urban Bee Lab, and it is why I am excited to help tell the organization’s story. The organization’s work depends on the support of people who believe that better science, better data, and stronger community engagement can help create healthier ecosystems for pollinators and the communities that depend on them.

If you’d like to support that mission, you can learn more or make a contribution here:

Urban Bee Lab Donations⁠