Presentation short abstract

Centering a controversy over iNaturalist’s partnership with Google generative AI, we employ discourse analysis and interviews to understand how emerging technologies are remaking environmental science communities while recalibrating ecological labor, participation, and expertise.

Presentation long abstract

In June 2025, a seemingly innocuous announcement – that the citizen science app iNaturalist would partner with Google’s generative AI accelerator to improve species identification and user experience – ignited widespread backlash. A recent special issue in Big Data & Society on Artificial Intelligence controversies suggests such moments are windows into understanding shifting relations between technoscience, society and democracy. Here, we leverage insights from critical data studies and political ecology to understand how the iNat outcry, as well as broader debates in the biodiversity data community about AI and big tech investment and control of algorithms and data, illuminate the shifting terrain of digital technologies and environmental governance. We draw on a discourse analysis of comment threads on iNaturalist, bluesky and Reddit as well as interviews with 34 individuals on four continents engaged in the production and curation of global biodiversity data. Preliminary analysis suggests that objections about the energy use, data profiteering, lack of user autonomy to opt-out, and the erosion of trust among platform staff and users reveal core motivations and values of open science participants. At the same time, we see cautious optimism about applications to improve species identification, educate policy-makers, secure funding, and apply biodiversity information across diverse domains, from drug development to wildlife crime. By analyzing these perspectives, we show how particular technologies – from open-access databases and citizen science apps to blockchain ledgers and LLMs – facilitate or block the formation and maintenance of environmental science communities while recalibrating ecological labor, participation, and expertise.