“We heard that the preservation of sakura requires manpower and money and that it’s difficult to gather information,” Risa Shioda from Kirin told AFP.
“I think we can contribute by making it easier to plan for conservation,” she said.
About 20,000 photos have been collected since the launch last month, with the data available online for free for local authorities.
Worth a million
According to Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, famous for its riverbanks lined with cherry trees, replanting a new one costs around one million yen ($6,800).
Hiroyuki Wada of the Japan Tree Doctors Association, who inspects cherry trees in major spots in Tokyo, helped supervise the AI tool.
He said he hopes that it will help experts study the environmental reasons behind the degradation of some of the trees he sees.
In part, he blames climate change.
“I’m very worried. Changes in the environment are usually gradual, but now it’s visible,” he told AFP.
“There are impacts from the heat, and of course the lack of rainfall,” he said.