As multinationals and researchers harvest rare organisms around the world, anger
is rising in the global south over the unpaid use of lucrative genetic codes
found on their land
Even in the warm summer sun, the stagnant puddles and harsh rock faces of
Ribblehead quarry in North Yorkshire feel like an unlikely frontier of the AI
industrial revolution. Standing next to a waterfall that bursts out from the
fractured rock, Bupe Mwambingu reaches into the green sludge behind the cascade
and emerges with fistful of algae.
Balancing precariously on the rocks, the researcher passes the dripping mass to
her colleague Emma Bolton, who notes their GPS coordinates and the acidity,
temperature and light exposure on a phone app.
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