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The Duke opposes illegal wildlife trade and is the founder of the Royal Foundation Wildlife Federation.

The Duke of Cambridge praised a new type of scanning technology designed to combat the illegal smuggling of wildlife products.

William visited the Microsoft UK office in Reading on Thursday, where he learned how new and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence scanning technology can help airports safely detect illegal wildlife items hidden in luggage and cargo.

It was conducted after a recent experiment conducted at London Heathrow Airport, and Microsoft's artificial intelligence research project Seeker proved its ability with 70% accuracy.

Daniel Haines tells how he started to develop this technology when he was working in technology at Heathrow Airport, he opposed the illegal wildlife trade, and was the founder of the Royal Wildlife Federation . Since then, it has been taken over by Microsoft, where he now works.

John Holland-Kaye, CEO of Heathrow Airport, said: “At present we can extract 70-80% of dense materials, such as ivory. Some materials with lower density, we have reduced 30-40%. But this will improve.

"This will close Heathrow Airport as a channel for smuggling endangered species. But it will go elsewhere."

He said the purpose is to use their connections to promote the technology to other hub airports, and then smaller regional airports.

Mr. Haines said that it works by synchronizing the software with airport X-ray scanners and using artificial intelligence to identify objects.

Thanks to @united4wildlife, significant progress has been made in combating illegal wildlife trade in the past ten years. As you can see today, this new technology can change the way airports intercept illegal wildlife products. pic.twitter.com/OHNltHLqnX

-The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal), November 18, 2021

It was originally developed to identify materials such as ivory, but then they realized that this was not enough, so they turned to reticulated python skulls, bird eggs, otter skulls, and bird species.

He added that work is currently underway to increase the speed at which technology can help law enforcement agencies track down criminals.

Guy Clarke, a border guard officer working with the Endangered Species International Agreement team at Heathrow Airport, showed the Duke a series of items seized at the airport, including tortoise shell backpacks and polar bear skin carpets.

He told him how the Internet has led to an increase in the illegal wildlife trade, especially in derivative products.

He said: "This is a place where a lot of crime-unusual items, such as men's beard kits. There is a beard softening lotion made from aloe vera plant marketed by Cites from South Africa."

William said: "How did you find it? Too detailed."

Mr. Clarke’s colleague Sam Trackman said: “There are a lot of searches.”

William added: "Going through a lot of things. Going into every crate and getting under it is a very difficult job. How many of you do this? Six? If you give them another 20, 30, 40 People, they still have problems. This is why technology is so important."

United for Wildlife was founded by the Duke of Cambridge and the Royal Foundation in 2014 to protect endangered species and their habitats from the illegal wildlife trade.

It aims to prevent traffickers from transporting, funding, or profiting from illegal wildlife products by cooperating with transportation and financial companies and establishing partnerships with non-governmental organizations.