
Bengal tigers, red pandas and mountain gorillas are among the world's most familiar endangered species, but tens of thousands of others - like the Karpathos frog, the Perote deer mouse or the Mekong giant catfish - are largely unknown.
Typically perceived as lacking star quality, these species are now roaming massive billboards in one of the world's busiest destinations. An AI-powered initiative is spotlighting lesser-known endangered creatures on Times Square billboards this month, nightly in the few minutes before midnight across nearly 100 screens.
The project, dubbed Critically Extant, uses AI to illustrate the limited public data available on critically endangered flora and fauna. It's the first deep learning art display in the Times Square Arts program's decade-long history.
A neural network can only create images based on what it's seen in training data, and there's very little information online about some of these critically endangered species, said artist Sofia Crespo, who created the work with support from Meta Open Arts, using NVIDIA GPUs for AI training and inference. This project is ultimately about representation - for us to recognize that we are biased towards some species versus others.
Artwork courtesy of Sofia Crespo These biases in representation have implications on the effort and funding given to save different species. Research has shown that a small subset of endangered species that are considered charismatic, cute or marketable receive more funding than they need, while most others receive little to no support.
When endangered species of any size - such as insects, fungi or plants - are left without conservation resources, they're more vulnerable to extinction, contributing to a severe loss of biodiversity that makes ecosystems and food webs less resilient.
Intentionally Imperfect Portraits The AI model, created by Crespo and collaborator Feileacan McCormick, was trained on a paired dataset of nearly 3 million nature images and text describing around 10,000 species. But this still wasn't enough data to create true-to-life portraits of the less popular endangered species.
So the deep learning model, a generative adversarial network, does the best it can, guessing the features of a given endangered species based on related species. Due to the limited source data, many of the AI-generated creatures have a different color or body shape than their real-life counterparts - and that's the point.
Part of the project was relying on the open-source data that's available right now, said Crespo. If that's all the data we have, and species go extinct, what kind of knowledge and imagination do we have about the world that was lost?
Critically Extant features more than 30 species, including amphibians, birds, fish, flowering plants, fungi and insects. After feeding species names to the generative AI model, Crespo animated and processed the synthetic images further to create the final moving portraits.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ce_gif_02_5sec.mp4
The AI model behind this project was trained using a cluster of NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs. Crespo used a desktop NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU for what she called lightning-quick inference.
AI in the Public Square Critically Extant's Times Square display premiered on May 1 and will be shown nightly through the end of the month.
Image by Michael Hull/Times Square Arts The three-minute display features all 30+ specimens in a randomized arrangement that shifts every 30 seconds or so. Crespo said that using the NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU was essential to generate the high-resolution images needed to span dozens of digital billboards.
Crespo and McCormick, who run an ecology and AI-focused studio, also enhanced the art display with an AI-generated soundtrack trained on a diverse range of animal sounds.
The idea is to show diversity with many creatures, and overwhelm the audience with creatures that look very different from one another, Crespo said.
The project began as an exhibition on Instagram, with the goal of adding representation of critically endangered species to social media conversations. At Times Square, the work will reach an audience of hundreds of thousands more.
Crespo's work brings the natural world directly into the center of the very urban environment at odds with these at-risk species, and nods to the human changes that will be required to save them, reads the Times Square Arts post.
Crespo and McCormick have showcased their work at NVIDIA GTC, most recently an AI-generated fragment of coral reef titled Beneath the Neural Waves.
Learn more about AI artwork by Crespo and McCormick on the NVIDIA AI Art Gallery, and catch Critically Extant in Times Square through May 31.
Times Square images courtesy of Times Square Arts, photographed by Michael Hull. Artwork by Sofia Crespo.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
06/02/2026
Music fans know the feeling: A song stops you in your tracks, and you immediately want to know more. What inspired it, and what's the meaning behind it? We ...
06/02/2026
Calrec Wins Best of Show at ISE 2026 for Orchestrating Distributed IP Production
Calrec is delighted to announce that its IP Ecosystem Powered by True Control...
06/02/2026
TV Highlights: Saturday February 7th - Friday February 13th
What can I watch on TV in the UK this week? What can I watch on U&GOLD? What can I stream on U thi...
06/02/2026
The Winter Olympics 2026 in Milano Cortina officially get underway this evening (Friday 6 February) with the Opening Ceremony live on RT Player and RT News ch...
05/02/2026
Since bringing audiobooks to Spotify in 2022, we've helped listeners discove...
05/02/2026
Today, Spotify announced two new updates to give book lovers a more personalized...
05/02/2026
AI should balance automation (replacing tasks) and augmentation (empowering humans). Automate the mundane and augment the creative by applying the right AI type...
05/02/2026
BBC Studios and UKTV have appointed Karin Marelle to lead their Global Acquisitions team, overseeing the sourcing of content across BBC Studios' global chan...
05/02/2026
Thursday 5 February 2026
The Miniature Wife, A Sky Exclusive comedy drama starr...
05/02/2026
Thursday 5 February 2026
Trailer Revealed for Sky Original Film FUZE starring A...
05/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz at MWC Barcelona 2026: Enabling connections, empowering innovati...
04/02/2026
Lyrics are one of Spotify's most popular features, giving fans a richer way to experience the music and artists they love. They're viewed hundreds of mi...
04/02/2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Full cast announced for Saturday Night Live UK, comin...
04/02/2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Fear of running out of mobile data (FORO) is a real i...
04/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz powers next generation television in Brazil with DTV technology...
04/02/2026
Fox Corporation Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Results NEW YORK, NY, February 4, 2026 - Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX; FOX or the Compan...
04/02/2026
Lucas P. Arag n Joins FOX Advertising as Senior Vice President, Creative New York, NY - February 4, 2026 - Accomplished Creative Executive Lucas P. Arag n has...
04/02/2026
Following the passing of our friend and colleague Hugh Wallace, and with the full support of his family, RT will proceed with the broadcast of the new series o...
03/02/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration returned to Los Angeles last ni...
03/02/2026
FoMa Antares: Redefining Camera Stabilization for Modern ProductionsIn high-end broadcast and cinematic environments, precision, reliability, and flexibility ar...
03/02/2026
03 Feb 2026
VEON Welcomes Expanded Kyivstar Free Float After the Successful Kyi...
03/02/2026
Mel Giedroyc fronts brand new comedy entertainment format
3rd February 2026, London: U and U&Dave is set to launch brand-new escape room comedy entertainment s...
03/02/2026
Tuesday 3 February 2026
Iconic TV channel Sky One is coming back as the new hom...
03/02/2026
Wuppertal February 3, 2026
Riedel Connects Live Surgery and Medical Professionals at VISAR 2025Turnkey Managed Technology Solution Featuring Riedel MediorNet,...
02/02/2026
February 2 2026, 20:30 (PST) Mahindra launches XUV 7XO as Indias first vehicle ...
02/02/2026
Ahead of the hotly anticipated return of Bergerac to U and U&DRAMA in the Spring, a teaser has been released to give viewers a glimpse at what's in store in...
02/02/2026
Rohde & Schwarz reshapes mid-range market with new 44 GHz FPL spectrum analyzer ...
02/02/2026
In addition to DPA Microphones, the company will also be acquiring Wisycom and Austrian Audio. The acquisition is now being filed for regulatory approval and sh...
02/02/2026
Arvato Systems launches a flexible and standardized billing solution
New SAP S/4HANA Utilities master system combines standardization, economies of scale, and...
01/02/2026
Movistar Argentina is a 15,000-seat capacity indoor arena. Opened in 2019, it is situated in the cultural hub of Villa Crespo, an area renowned for its dance ha...
31/01/2026
Spotify's annual Best New Artist celebration returned to Los Angeles last ni...
30/01/2026
Spotify, Haziran ay sonunda kadar stanbul'da yeni bir ofis a aca n ve T rkiye pazar n y netmek zere yeni bir atama ger ekle tirdi ini duyurdu. Bu kaps...
30/01/2026
30 Jan 2026
VEON Partners with MindBridge to Enhance Financial Analytics, Audit...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Easels at the ready! All new judging line up for series ...
30/01/2026
Friday 30 January 2026
Britain can switch off terrestrial TV in the 2030s, with...
30/01/2026
Two key themes came through strongly:
Inconsistent measurement remains a major barrier to comparing performance across Retail Media Networks
Independent cer...
29/01/2026
Michele Fracchiolla Succeeds Andrew Barr as President of EMEA region from April 1, 2026
London, January 29, 2026
Hitachi Europe Ltd. today announces the appoi...
29/01/2026
29 Jan 2026
Kyivstar Announces Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Shares Held by VEON NEW YORK, New York, January 29, 2026 -- VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a ...
29/01/2026
X-Rite Pantone Appoints Cindy Cooperman as Vice President and General Manager of...
29/01/2026
New two-part true crime documentary, OUTBACK TERROR: THE FALCONIO MURDER, aims to shed new light on a case that continues to intrigue on both sides of the world...
29/01/2026
FOX Sports Unveils Historic FIFA World Cup 2026 Broadcast Schedule Monumental Slate Features 340 Hours of Live First-Run Programming Across FOX Sports Platfo...
29/01/2026
AI Assistants Head into 2026 on a High Note: Comscore Reports Triple-Digit Growt...
29/01/2026
Broadcom Confirms Arvato Systems' Status as a VCSP Partner
Broadcom Partner Program Update
Arvato Systems confirmed as authorized VMware Cloud Service Pr...
29/01/2026
RT has today announced that Annette Malone has been appointed to the role of Chief People Officer, RT following a public competition.
As Chief People Officer...
28/01/2026
Music discovery should feel intuitive and personal. That's why we're continuing to give you more control, so you can ask for what you want, shape what y...