Gorillas with Digital Wallets? AI Helps Understand the Needs of Endangered Species in Rwanda (Jonathan Ledgard, Tehanu)

October 14, 2025

Humans express their interests through money. Can animals do the same? And can artificial intelligence truly recognize what animals need? Jonathan Ledgard, writer, former foreign correspondent for The Economist, and founder of the technology start-up Tehanu, believes they can.

In the new episode of Adastra’s podcast, he explains how his team uses sensors and AI to explore the concept of “interspecies money” – a system in which non-human beings could have their own digital identity, wallet, and the ability to express their interests, which humans then help fulfill.

Watch the interview

From Mountain Gorillas to Digital Animal Identities

Tehanu began with a pilot project involving 19 mountain gorillas in Rwanda (three more were born during the study).

In collaboration with Adastra, the team developed an AI model that analyzed hundreds of scientific papers, field data, and biological observations to create a hierarchy of gorilla needs – from safety and food to health.

The algorithm identified patterns and correlations in the data, determining which factors most influence the species’ quality of life. These findings were then compared to expert human assessments — and even at this early stage, AI was able to uncover the animals’ true priorities more accurately than scientists, thanks to its lack of human bias.

Interspecies Money in Practice

The concept of interspecies money envisions that animals with verified digital identities could have an associated digital wallet.

Funds would flow into these wallets through micro-payments from institutions or corporations that impact nature — for instance, through environmental finance funds.

The system would then distribute these funds to human agents, people in local communities who perform specific conservation tasks: protecting territories, removing traps, or monitoring animal health. For these communities, it represents a new source of income — small but regular rewards for activities that directly benefit nature.

With AI, this assistance can be targeted precisely where it matters most, based on real-time data about a species’ current needs rather than human assumptions.

The long-term goal of Tehanu is to build a digital public infrastructure that connects AI, financial markets, and nature conservation.

“Just as humans have state-issued identities, other species can have theirs too. If we understand the planet as a closed system, their interests must be part of our algorithms,” says Jonathan Ledgard.

In the future, this could lead to the development of AI copilots not only for humans but also for animals — systems that help people better understand what nature truly needs.

• How can artificial intelligence help protect biodiversity?
• Will we ever objectively understand what is in the “interest” of other species?
• And what happens when the interests of different species collide?

Listen to the podcast

More about the project