Researchers are training AI to interpret animal emotions

Artificial intelligence could eventually help us understand when animals are in pain or showing other emotions — at least according to researchers recently profiled in Science.

For example, there’s the Intellipig system being developed by scientists at the University of the West of England Bristol and Scotland’s Rural College, which examines photos of pigs’ faces and notifies the farmer if there are signs of pain, sickness, or emotional distress.

And a team at the University of Haifa behind facial recognition software that’s already been used to help people find lost dogs is now training AI to identify signs of discomfort on animals’ faces.

These systems rely on human beings to do the initial work of identifying the meanings of different animal behaviors (usually based on long observation of animals in various situations), so they can train the AI on what to look for.

However, a researcher at the University of São Paulo has experimented with using photos of horses’ faces before and after surgery, as well as before and after taking painkillers, allowing an AI system to use deep learning to decide on its own what signs might indicate pain, with an 88% success rate in a recent study.