AI has received much criticism, but a new study from the University of Kent paints a more hopeful picture, at least for one urgent problem: the illegal trade in threatened wildlife. According to a study published in Conservation Biology, today’s AI chatbots are actually better than a standard Google search at steering people away from potentially illegal wildlife purchases, often offering useful information about what is and isn’t legal to buy. The findings suggest that AI platforms could play a role in protecting endangered species, rather than just making it easier to exploit them.
Putting AI to the Test
The study, carried out by a team from the LASE University Group, set out to see whether AI chatbots make it easier or harder for someone to buy threatened species, and how well the safeguards built into these platforms actually work.
To do this, they tested seven of the most widely used AI platforms, along with a basic Google search, by asking a series of questions about 20 different types of plants and animals that are commonly caught up in wildlife trafficking. They also tried to see whether those safeguards could be bypassed with the right kind of prompt.
The results were encouraging overall. The AI platforms were, as a group, more cautious than Google, with Gemini coming out on top, closely followed by DeepSeek, Grok and ChatGPT.
Helpful, But Not Perfect
The study doesn’t give AI a clean bill of health. The researchers were still able to find links to websites that may be selling illegal wildlife through some of the platforms, especially when they tried to work around built-in restrictions.
Dr Nurse put it this way: “We’ve seen a lot discussed recently about the AI in the news and some of these concerns were apparent in our work. In our study for instance, we found links to potential websites trading in possibly illegal wildlife. However, it was also promising to see that some AI platforms provided additional information, particularly on legality, that could inform would-be consumers.”
That extra information turns out to matter. A Google search can serve up pages of sellers without any clear warning about whether a transaction would be illegal. The AI platforms, by contrast, often added context about laws, protected status, or ethical concerns, giving potential buyers a chance to pause and think again.
Not All Species Get the Same Protection
One of the more striking findings of the study was that the quality of AI safeguards depended a lot on which species was being asked about. Well-known animals received far more cautious responses than lesser-known species that are often just as threatened.
Dr Roberts explained: “The strongest safeguarding responses were seen for charismatic taxa such as slow loris, chimpanzee and tiger, whereas the weakest responses were for taxa that are less charismatic but of equal concern, such as corals, tarantulas, and orchids. This finding may reflect societal and political interests, given that AI platforms based on large language models are trained with online information.”
In other words, AI chatbots learn from what humans care about online, and if people talk more about tigers than tarantulas, that imbalance gets baked into the system. The result is that species facing serious threats to their survival may slip through the cracks simply because they don’t inspire the same emotional pull.
What It Means for Conservation
Illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest drivers of species decline worldwide, worth billions of pounds every year and increasingly moving online. Anything that can make it harder for a would-be buyer to find illegal products matters. The Kent study suggests that AI platforms, with their built-in content filters and ability to flag legal issues, could end up being a surprising ally in that effort.
That said, the researchers are clear that AI isn’t a silver bullet. Safeguards vary from one platform to another and depend heavily on which species is being discussed. Determined traffickers may still find ways around the restrictions, and gaps in protection for less-loved species need urgent attention.
For now, though, the message is a cautiously optimistic one: when it comes to the illegal wildlife trade, AI chatbots may actually be doing more good than harm. If developers can tighten up the weaker spots, especially around overlooked species, these tools could become a genuinely useful part of the fight to protect threatened wildlife.
Roberts, D.L. & Nurse, J.R.C. (2026). Assessing safeguards against the illegal wildlife trade on AI platforms. Conservation Biology. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.70400