Baidu in China working on AI that will let humans understand animals
Have you ever wondered what your cat or dog is trying to say? Sounds ambitious, right? Well, Baidu is now working on something that might help with this. For those who don't know, Baidu is a Chinese tech company founded in 2000, and is known for running the country's biggest search engine. It wants to use AI to understand what animals are feeling or trying to say. The company recently filed a patent with the China National Intellectual Property Administration that describes a special system that could change animal sounds into human language. This system would use a mix of animal sounds, behaviour, and body signals to guess the animal's emotions and then turn those emotions into words we can understand.advertisementAccording to Baidu's patent, the system will first collect sounds made by animals, such as meows, barks or other vocalisations. It will also look at their behaviour, like how they move or act, along with body data like heart rate. All of this information will be processed together using AI to figure out what the animal might be feeling — like happiness, fear or hunger. Then, the system — in theory — would match these feelings with words or phrases in human language. This could allow people to talk with their pets in a whole new way.Baidu said in the patent that the system would allow 'deeper emotional communication and understanding between animals and humans, improving the accuracy and efficiency of cross-species communication.'
When asked about when this product might be ready, a Baidu spokesperson said, 'There has been a lot of interest in the filing of our patent application. Currently, it is still in the research phase.'advertisementBaidu is not the only one working on this idea. Around the world, other scientists are also trying to use AI to study how animals communicate. For example, Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) is studying how sperm whales talk to each other using sounds. Another group called the Earth Species Project is also working to decode animal communication using technology. That project is supported by big names, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.After news of Baidu's new animal translation patent came out, many folks on Chinese social media started talking. Some were excited, while others weren't so sure about the whole idea. A Weibo user wrote, 'While it sounds impressive, we'll need to see how it performs in real-world applications.'
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