Even as a child, Krish Pai was curious about the mysteries of the universe, puzzled over how things worked, and was fascinated by the natural world. But, when his mother brought a beehive into their backyard, Pai began discovering the importance of coexisting with our wildlife cohabitants. Like most, Krish initially feared being stung by the bees. Then, he witnessed his first of many bee swarm events. A swarm is when thousands of bees suddenly leave the hive in a cluster, only to collect and rest on a nearby structure or tree.
It took time for these new experiences to settle with Krish. But, as he grew older, Pai realized he had to overcome his hesitation and decided to learn all he could about the hidden life of bees. More and more, he began exploring the bee’s backyard space. As he became friendlier towards the hive, he noticed that he had not been stung despite their constant presence! His fears started to decrease, and his scientific curiosity increased.
When his parents went to extract the natural honey from the hive, he was amazed at the process. Engulfed in a harmless smoke through which he could barely see or breathe, the bees fell into a tranquil sleep. He observed that the raw, unfiltered honey looked nothing like the honey on store shelves. It was extremely thick, very dark, and simply did not look edible at all to Pai. But after some processing, the honey looked more like what he was accustomed to, but it tasted quite different!
With some research, Krish Pai discovered the medicinal benefits of honey, especially when it comes directly from the beehive. First, there was direct relief from his allergy symptoms and a host of other antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory benefits. Understandably, Krish’s scientific curiosity set in. He wondered how he could use his background in creating artificial intelligence applications to give back to the bees.
He started a research journey and discovered how vital bees are to the world’s ecosystem by pollinating plants, which causes more plant growth that releases oxygen into the atmosphere. Furthermore, he found that bee colonies have been dwindling in the past 10 to 20 years due to colony collapse disorder. This happens when the worker bees leave the beehive, leaving food and the queen bee behind. This disorder results in a reduction in the total pollination and honey production a beehive can deliver.
Krish Pai believes that artificial intelligence can monitor beehive activity and accurately predict the risk of a collapse. First, AI could predict when a colony is ready to swarm. With the right algorithm deployed on a field device working in real-time to ensure a safe environment, colony collapse disorders worldwide can be significantly reduced.
Now, Pai is enjoying the backyard bee ecosystem in a completely different way. He is excited about the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to global problems similar to the dwindling bee population. In the future, Krish would like to create artificial intelligence that is less computationally expensive so that more niche problems like colony collapse disorder can be solved at a low cost.
