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Animals in the machine: why the law needs to protect animals from AI
September 30, 2024 (The Conversation)
AI has the potential to both help and harm animals, benefiting areas like veterinary care but also facilitating illegal wildlife trade and perpetuating animal cruelty. Australia's renewed Animal Welfare Strategy should address these AI-related risks to ensure technology does not amplify existing animal harms or create new ones.
Animal-counting drones help farmers speed up stocktake
September 30, 2024 (1 News)
AI-powered drones are revolutionizing livestock counting on farms in New Zealand, significantly speeding up the process by quickly identifying and counting animals from aerial footage. This innovation reduces human error, enhances efficiency, and provides farmers with rapid and accurate stocktake results, improving operational management.
EuroTier 2024: Trends in livestock technology
September 24, 2024 (EuroTier)
EuroTier 2024, the world's leading livestock technology fair, will showcase AI-powered solutions for animal monitoring, automated feeding systems, and emission-reducing barn designs. The November event will highlight innovations in robotic farm assistance, climate control technologies, and data integration to improve animal welfare and farm efficiency.
A Look at Science, Technology, and Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Aquaculture
September 23, 2024 (Environmental Defense Fund)
Advanced AI and robotics are improving aquaculture sustainability through automated feeding, disease detection, and remote monitoring of ocean farms. Meanwhile, innovations in feed formulas, pen designs, and traceability systems aim to reduce environmental impacts and improve efficiency in open ocean fish farming.
AI Caught In ‘Tug-Of-War’ Between Animal Agriculture And Advocacy
September 22, 2024 (Plant Based News)
AI is creating a "tug-of-war" in animal agriculture, with potential to intensify factory farming or empower animal advocacy efforts. Open Paws founder Sam Tucker argues now is the critical time to direct AI towards compassionate purposes, helping advocacy organizations while pushing for restrictions on AI use in animal farming.
Advanced biomass camera proves a success for New Zealand salmon farms
September 16, 2024 (The Fish Site)
Ace Aquatec's A-BIOMASS camera, using AI and machine learning, has proven successful at Mount Cook Alpine Salmon's New Zealand farm, providing accurate real-time biomass estimates in challenging conditions. The technology has improved harvest results and reduced fish stress, prompting Ace Aquatec to pursue expansion across Oceania's aquaculture industry.
Using AI, EWG maps 357M poultry on North Carolina’s factory farms
September 12, 2024 (Environmental Working Group)
The Environmental Working Group used AI to map 357 million chickens and turkeys on North Carolina factory farms, revealing a 43% increase since 2007 and significant environmental concerns. The investigation highlights the lack of state oversight and potential health risks associated with dense concentrations of poultry operations, including air and water pollution from the estimated 3.2 million tons of manure produced annually.
Valiance Solutions launches WildlifeIQ: Intelligent insights for effective wildlife monitoring and conservation
September 9, 2024 (CRN India)
Valiance Solutions has launched WildlifeIQ, an AI-powered platform for intelligent wildlife monitoring and conservation, featuring automated species classification, tiger identification, and conflict prediction. The system significantly speeds up the analysis of camera trap images from months to days, offering real-time insights to help manage human-wildlife conflicts more effectively.
Could AI replace animal research?
September 5, 2024 (Understanding Animal Research)
AI is increasingly being used to improve the efficiency and precision of animal research, particularly in fields like toxicology, where AI-driven models replicate human biological systems to predict responses to substances, complementing traditional animal testing. While AI shows promise in enhancing data analysis, experimental design, and outcome prediction, it is not yet capable of fully replacing animal models due to the complexity of living organisms; instead, it primarily serves to refine current methods and reduce the number of animals used.
Op-ed: AI data modeling and nanotechnology are innovations every farmer should be taking note of
September 4, 2024 (Seafood Source)
Norwegian aquaculture startups like Manolin and Biofeyn are using AI and advanced technologies to improve fish farming efficiency and sustainability. Manolin applies AI-driven predictive modeling to optimize salmon farming by helping farmers predict health issues, optimize breeding and genetics, and improve treatments for sea lice; while Biofeyn uses nanotechnology to enhance fish nutrition and deliver oral vaccines via feed.
Danish researchers use AI to understand pigs
September 4, 2024 (The Local)
Danish researchers from the University of Copenhagen used AI to decode 19 distinct pig vocalizations, identifying emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, frustration, and stress. The study, based on over 15,000 recorded pig grunts, found that pigs in conventional farms expressed distress more frequently (25%) compared to pigs in outdoor environments (8%), highlighting welfare differences.
How AI is Powering the Next Generation of Plant-Based Food
September 3, 2024 (VegNews)
Three companies are using AI to revolutionize plant-based foods: Climax Foods uses AI to analyze animal-based foods at a molecular level, creating hyper-realistic vegan cheeses with plant-based casein; Meati employs AI to optimize the nutrition of mycelium-based meat alternatives; and NotCo's AI, Giuseppe, mimics the molecular structure of animal products, generating innovative plant-based recipes, such as using pineapple and cabbage to replicate dairy milk. These innovations aim to improve taste, texture, and nutritional value while reducing production costs.
[Audio] Translating whale, with the help of AI
August 30, 2024 (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Project CETI uses AI and autonomous submarines to record and analyze sperm whale vocalizations, identifying distinct "codas" that vary by family and region, such as the unique "one plus one plus three" pattern found only in Caribbean sperm whales. These codas are believed to convey cultural information, like clan identity, behavior, and habitat use, and the project's machine learning models help process vast amounts of audio to classify these patterns, revealing nuanced communication that may change with context, like tempo shifts indicating different emotional states.
How AI can help design proteins for the food industry
August 30, 2024 (Food Navigator)
Start-ups like Cradle are using generative AI to design and optimize proteins for various applications in the food industry, such as improving the stability of growth factors in cultivated meat or enhancing the clarity of fruit juices. This technology allows for the creation of proteins with specific properties that may not naturally occur, significantly speeding up the development process and enabling new functionalities, like extending shelf life or removing off-tastes in plant-based products.
How machine learning is helping us probe the secret names of animals
August 29, 2024 (MIT Technology Review)
Researchers at Hebrew University in Israel have used machine learning and audio analysis to discover that marmoset monkeys use specific vocal labels, akin to names, to identify and communicate with individual monkeys. By employing a statistical technique called "random forest," the team was able to classify and analyze these sounds, providing strong evidence that these vocal labels are a form of primitive naming, similar to what has been observed in humans, dolphins, elephants, and parrots.
How generative AI could boost plant-based protein functionality
August 27, 2024 (Food Navigator)
AI Bobby's generative AI technology specifically designs and optimizes plant-based proteins by analyzing vast datasets to identify the most effective protein structures for desired functionalities, such as gelation, which is crucial for achieving the right texture and mouthfeel in plant-based products. The AI models are trained to predict and enhance the gelling properties of proteins, enabling the creation of plant-based meats and dairy analogues with improved consistency and reduced need for additional ingredients, thus lowering production costs and improving product quality.
Trump Calls Wind Turbines Bird Killers. New AI Tech Saves Them From The Blades
August 27, 2024 (Forbes)
New AI-powered radar systems can detect bird flocks and automatically halt wind turbines to prevent collisions, with successful trials in Portugal and upcoming implementations in Dutch wind farms. While wind turbines do kill birds, studies show that domestic cats, buildings, and vehicles are far greater threats to bird populations.
AI can detect wildfires and monitor endangered birds, according to Hong Kong experts, start-up
August 19, 2024 (South China Morning Post)
Hong Kong experts and start-ups are leveraging AI to enhance conservation efforts, such as detecting wildfires and monitoring endangered bird populations. Robotics Cats, a local AI start-up, uses advanced surveillance cameras and deep learning to automate wildlife tracking and habitat management, earning recognition from the World Economic Forum. Despite challenges like remote habitat conditions affecting accuracy, AI-driven solutions are proving valuable in tasks like bird counting and wildfire detection, with potential for broader adoption in environmental protection initiatives.
How do swine producers and veterinarians think precision livestock farming could help farms?
August 13, 2024 (Michigan State University)
Swine veterinarians see more potential in precision livestock farming (PLF) than producers, particularly for addressing respiratory and tail-biting issues, with 75% recommending PLF to their clients. Both producers and vets agree that PLF is most needed for reducing piglet mortality, lameness, and post-weaning issues, highlighting a shared concern for animal welfare. Veterinarians tend to prioritize health and performance, while producers consider broader operational factors when deciding on PLF adoption.
Google’s aquaculture AI spin-off to expand to Australia, Chile with new funding
August 13, 2024 (Undercurrent News)
Tidal, Google's aquaculture AI spin-off, has secured new funding to strengthen its presence in Norway and expand to Australia and Chile. Tidal’s AI-driven underwater technology, already deployed in over 250 pens globally, helps salmon farmers track growth, monitor fish welfare, and optimize feeding through autonomous systems, aiming to solve key industry challenges.
AI and food-grade bioreactors may improve margins on cultivated meat commercialization
August 13, 2024 (Food Navigator USA)
To scale cultivated meat production from kilograms to tons, the industry needs to shift from expensive pharmaceutical-grade bioreactors to cost-effective food-grade alternatives, which are currently unavailable. Leveraging AI and machine learning can optimize bioprocesses by analyzing data from sensors in bioreactors to improve efficiency, such as timing media feeds and adjusting temperatures in real-time. Public-private partnerships, like the Bezos Earth Fund's AI for Climate initiative, are essential to fund and develop scalable solutions, including serum-free media and other cost-reducing technologies.
Redefine Meat expands its reach into the EU
August 2, 2024 (Food Manufacture)
Redefine Meat, a plant-based meat company, has expanded its presence in the European market by securing listings with major retailers such as Coop in Switzerland, Jumbo in the Netherlands, Velivery in Germany, and Monoprix in France. To support this growth, the company plans to scale up production at its Netherlands factory, with the aim of meeting rising demand and reducing CO2 emissions by 210,000,000 kg. Redefine Meat uses AI and 3D printing technology to create plant-based products that mimic the texture and structure of real meat
[Video] How AI could help us talk to animals
August 1, 2024 (Vox)
Researchers studying animal communication have made significant progress using AI to decode complex vocalizations in species like African elephants. Observations that elephants may direct calls to specific individuals were supported by a study using statistical models that could predict which elephant a call was intended for, suggesting that elephants may use names. Advances in machine learning, including self-supervised models, are now being explored to uncover deeper patterns in animal communication, potentially paving the way for true interspecies dialogue, although the challenge of validation remains significant.
Could AI save your pet's life?
August 1, 2024 (BBC News)
AI is increasingly being used in veterinary practices, allowing for faster and more accurate diagnoses of pet illnesses. At the Royston Veterinary Centre, AI tools like Vetscan Imagyst help analyze samples such as blood, urine, and tissue in a matter of hours, enabling quicker treatment decisions and reducing the need for invasive procedures. While AI is proving to be a valuable tool for improving animal care, it must be used responsibly, with veterinary surgeons retaining the final say in diagnosis and treatment.
Precision livestock tech has hurdles
August 1, 2024 (The Western Producer)
Precision livestock farming holds significant promise for improving animal health, efficiency, and environmental sustainability, but adoption is hindered by economic risks and limited commercial availability. Farmers are hesitant to invest in these technologies without clear evidence of a return on investment, and the complexity of some precision systems further complicates their implementation. Additionally, data ownership remains a contentious issue, with producers concerned about who controls the valuable data generated by these systems and how it is used.
AI Animal Communication Breakthroughs Could Revolutionize Our Relationship With Animals
July 29, 2024 (Sentient Media)
Recent AI breakthroughs are enabling projects like the Earth Species Project to decode animal communication by analyzing vast datasets of vocalizations and behaviors, with efforts focusing on species such as crows, sperm whales, and rodents. Tools like DeepSqueak already interpret specific rodent calls, but researchers emphasize that accurate communication requires linking these patterns to observed behaviors in natural contexts. If successful, these advances could reshape animal rights by providing concrete evidence of animal distress or needs, but they also carry risks of exploitation, such as enhancing factory farming practices by using AI to manipulate animal behavior.
Report on the Use of AI in Animal Advocacy
July 17, 2024 (Open Paws)
Open Paws surveyed 194 participants from 142 animal advocacy organizations about AI use. 72.2% of respondents had positive personal attitudes towards AI, and 50.5% currently use AI for writing or editing content. while 60.3% cited lack of technical expertise as the main barrier to adoption. The main challenges cited include lack of technical expertise, concerns about AI accuracy, and limited budgets. To address these issues, Open Paws recommends providing technical training, developing custom AI models tailored for animal advocacy, and establishing funding assistance programs to support AI integration in the sector.
From MilkingBots to RoboDolphins: How AI changes human-animal relations and enables alienation towards animals
July 16, 2024 (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications)
Disruptive technologies, including AI and robotics, have significant potential to alter human-animal relations. This paper aims to both descriptively analyze the impact of these technologies on human-animal interactions and normatively introduce a non-anthropocentric perspective that acknowledges the moral significance of these relations. The study focuses on how automation in agriculture and the replacement of biological animals with AI-driven entities in various contexts, such as zoos and laboratories, influence these interactions and highlights the ethical considerations involved.
Leveraging AI in cultivated seafood research
July 12, 2024 (University of Waterloo)
Two researchers from the University of Waterloo have received over $700,000 in grants to scale their research on cultivated fish. Using AI and computational modeling, their research aims to improve understanding of fish cell growth, gene regulation, and cell differentiation, with the goal of producing sustainable cultivated seafood.
How artificial intelligence could transform broiler genetics
July 9, 2024 (WATT Poultry)
Advances in AI and data analytics are enhancing broiler genetics by enabling more precise measurement and selection of traits such as growth rate and feed efficiency. AI could also enable objective assessments of traditionally subjective measures, like gait quality and leg health, through the use of cameras. AI also has potential applications in improving hatchability by monitoring and analyzing mating behaviors, which could lead to increased hatch rates and overall efficiency in broiler production.
Using AI to streamline gender-sorting processes in salmon aquaculture
July 8, 2024 (Global Seafood Alliance)
AI is being used to automate the gender-sorting process in salmon aquaculture, improving the accuracy and efficiency of sorting fish by sex. Companies like Aquaticode and Econexus are developing AI-based systems that can handle thousands of fish per hour, potentially enhancing fish quality assessment and production optimization. These systems could also offer additional benefits such as early disease detection and improved animal welfare by reducing stress through accurate and early interventions.
Making moo-ves: Sainsbury’s first retailer to milk the benefits of new AI “vet tech” to improve animal welfare and efficiency on dairy farms
July 1, 2024 (Sainsbury’s)
Sainsbury’s has become the first retailer to implement AI veterinary technology on dairy farms to enhance animal welfare and efficiency. Partnering with Vet Vision AI, the technology uses cameras to monitor cows 24/7, providing real-time data on their health and behavior, and offering suggestions to improve their comfort and well-being. As well as detecting early signs of disease, the technology tracks positive behavioral patterns, helping to improve cows’ welfare, which in turn increases productivity.
Why talking to animals could soon become a reality
June 28, 2024 (BBC Science Focus)
Veterinarian Jess French suggests AI could soon allow humans to better understand animal communication by analyzing sensory data like sounds and smells. This could revolutionize veterinary care and improve our interactions with animals, enabling us to detect health issues in species that typically hide symptoms, such as rabbits, and to understand complex signals from animals like snakes and fish. French also highlights potential ethical considerations, as AI might reveal distressing messages from animals about their treatment and environments.
The scientific future of pet food: Leveraging alternative proteins
June 27, 2024 (Pet Food Processing)
Bond Pet Foods uses AI and precision fermentation to create sustainable, animal-free proteins for pet food. They bioengineer microorganisms to produce proteins identical to those in animal meat, ensuring nutritional completeness and sustainability. This approach aims to reduce reliance on traditional animal proteins and offers a consistent and eco-friendly alternative for pet nutrition.
Fighting fire from space: How AI could save millions of Australian animals from deadly wildfires
June 25, 2024 (Discover Wildlife)
Scientists at the University of South Australia have developed AI-enabled software for cube satellites (cubesats) to detect wildfires in under an hour, potentially saving millions of animals. During the 2019-20 Australian wildfires, an estimated 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 181 million birds, and 51 million frogs were impacted. Early detection using this technology could significantly reduce such devastating effects on wildlife, improving their survival rates during future fire events.
AI Animal Welfare: Creating an Animal-Friendly Model
June 19, 2024 (AI Safety Fundamentals)
The winner of the 'AI strategy' prize on AI Safety Fundamentals’ AI Alignment (March 2024) course was a project titled ‘AI Animal Welfare: Creating an Animal-Friendly Model’. Building on the insights from "The Case for Animal-Friendly AI," this project seeks to replicate and extend their evaluation methods by developing an AI model that better considers animal welfare. The objective is to gain hands-on experience with large language models, including their prompting, evaluation, and fine-tuning, while also raising awareness about the intersection of animal advocacy and artificial intelligence.
Can AI replace animal testing?
June 18, 2024 (Polytechnique Insights)
Researchers are exploring artificial intelligence as a potential alternative to animal testing in science, motivated by ethical concerns and the limitations of using animals to study human biology. Some new approaches include "digital twin" systems (computer simulations that mimic human tissues or organs), organoids (miniature 3D cell cultures grown to resemble simplified versions of organs), and AI algorithms that predict how genes interact to determine cell functions. However, researchers disagree about how much to value animals’ wellbeing and how well AI can truly replicate complex biological systems, making it difficult to completely eliminate animal testing currently.
The AI revolution comes for farmers growing a third of our food
June 15, 2024 (Japan Times)
The Ulangizi app, piloted by Opportunity International, leverages AI to assist Malawian subsistence farmers by providing crop and animal disease management advice in the local language, Chichewa, through WhatsApp. For example, farmers can take photos of sick animals, and the app diagnoses issues and suggests treatments, helping prevent livestock losses. Despite challenges such as limited smartphone access and connectivity, the app is seen as a valuable resource, saving time and money by providing quick, reliable agricultural information.
How artificial intelligence can mitigate transition cow diseases
June 14, 2024 (Farmers Weekly)
Many transition cow health issues, such as metritis and ketosis mastitis, often go unnoticed but can be mitigated with optimized management and animal health care. Predicta GUARDIAN, an AI tool, identifies cows at high risk for transition diseases by analyzing existing herd data, providing early alerts to farmers via WhatsApp, SMS, or email. This proactive approach allows targeted treatment, enhancing farm sustainability and economic outcomes while preventing irreversible damage.
How AI Anchors The Future Of Fishing & Charts The Course To Sustainability
June 13, 2024 (Forbes)
AI is revolutionizing fishing by enabling sustainable practices through advanced technologies like smart nets and predictive analytics. These innovations help reduce bycatch, target specific fish populations more efficiently, and monitor illegal fishing activities. Additionally, AI tools empower local communities to manage their fishing grounds effectively, contributing to marine conservation and resource management.
Scientists release 1,000+ hours of wild meerkat audio; train model on it
June 10, 2024 (ImportAI)
“A multi-disciplinary group of researchers have built MeerKAT, a "1068 h large-scale dataset containing data from audio-recording collars worn by free-ranging meerkats". Along with this, they've developed animal2vec, a "a framework for training animal call recognizers from raw waveforms containing sparsely distributed calls with non-uniformly distributed call types". The idea here is that just as we've built foundation models to help us better classify and generate human language, we might seek to do the same with animals. ”
Could AI put an end to animal testing?
June 6, 2024 (BBC News)
“Researchers have long sought non-animal alternatives. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are now accelerating this work. One application of AI in this field is simple but said to be proving effective – using it to trawl through all the existing and available global animal testing results to prevent the need for unnecessary new tests.
This is useful because it can be difficult for scientists to sift through decades of data to find and analyse exactly what they are after, says Joseph Manuppello, a senior research analyst at the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine, a US non-profit. “I’m very excited about the application of AI models like ChatGPT to extract and synthesise all of this available data, and getting the most out of it,” he says.”
Artificial Intelligence deployed to help make ‘greenest burger in Britain’
June 5, 2024 (The Business Desk)
“A quarter pounder burger has been produced with the help of AI on a Yorkshire industrial estate.
Made with vertically farmed oyster mushrooms by the firm Myco, the Hooba burger is developed using eco-friendly production processes.
These involve using AI to help grow thousands of mushrooms inside Myco’s 20,000 sq ft production site in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire.
Besides the mushrooms, the business uses just five more ingredients which are locally sourced to avoid needing to increase emissions through importing them.”
Artificial intelligence is being trained to monitor cattle
June 3, 2024 (Beef Central)
“The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Goondiwindi-based company Infarm have collaborated to create a prototype automated camera system to detect cattle and monitor their condition using advances in machine vision and artificial intelligence.
Once up and running, the system will be able to alert a producer when there are issues like animal injuries and lameness, or emergency animal disease symptoms. Testing indicates the technology could also be used to monitor feral and native animal numbers.”
EFishery gets $30m loan from HSBC to expand reach of AI-powered feeding tool
May 31, 2024 (Tech In Asia)
“HSBC Indonesia has extended a US$30 million green and social loan to eFishery, which will help the company expand its eFeeder fleet.
The eFeeder device gets leased to small-scale fish farmers in the company’s network. The tool, which can be managed via mobile phones, helps farmers schedule feeding time, get feeding advice, and track feeding data.
The company said that the artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) device can help boost the efficiency and yield of conventional fish farming by around 30% and 25%, respectively.”
Pulmuone Signs R&D Deal with Robotics Company ABB to Advance Cultivated Seafood Plans
May 31, 2024 (Green Queen)
“Seoul-based plant protein giant Pulmuone has partnered with Swiss robotics company ABB to advance AI-assisted research and development into cultivated seafood production.
ABB’s expertise lies in electrification, automation and digitalisation technologies, and Pulmuone plans to leverage these capabilities to inform its efforts towards commercialising cultivated seafood.
The manufacturing process involves isolating cells from living fish, which are then used to make cell cultures. Pulmuone aims to automate this process with ABB’s robotics tech as part of its strategy to become a global future food leader.”
$10m prize launched for team that can truly talk to the animals
May 30, 2024 (The Guardian)
“The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Interspecies Two-Way Communication has been launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University. While the use of AI is not obligatory, the team say the technology can boost almost all proposals.
“Just as the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of the hieroglyphics, I am convinced that the power of AI can help us to unlock interspecies conversation,” said Jeremy Coller, chair of the foundation.”
Meat, dairy startups on the cutting edge
May 28, 2024 (Food Business News)
“How did Oliver Zahn, chief executive officer of Climax Foods and developer of the blue cheese, identify kokum butter as an invaluable component? It was through artificial intelligence (AI). He said he believes that plants are far more genetically diverse than animals and serve as great building blocks for food optimization. The infinite combinations of plant-based ingredients may be optimized to produce indistinguishable alternatives to animal-based products.
Boulder, Colo.-based Meati Foods used AI from PIPA LLC, Davis, Calif., to accelerate its understanding of the nutritional and functional opportunities offered by mycelium, also known as mushroom root. The use of AI has enabled Meati Foods to develop its animal-free whole-food protein cuts.”
To Improve Fish Welfare, a Startup Blends AI With an Ancient Japanese Fishing Method
May 24, 2024 (Sentient Media)
“Here’s how it works: the system uses artificial intelligence to detect the size and shape of each fish, and then use that information to identify the location of the brain. The mechanical component — the technical details of which the company does not want to reveal — then penetrates the brain, taking just a second of time.
Michael Fabbro, CEO of LocalCoho — a salmon farm in New York State that has been using the Shinkei system — has been impressed with the system’s precision. According to Khawaja, the system kills with its first strike 98 percent of the time. “The computer vision is really [what] gives us that surgical accuracy,” he says.”
ProVeg calls for animal advocates to join AI initiative to boost food systems
May 22, 2024 (Food Ingredients First)
“ProVeg, which aims to reduce the consumption of animals, is looking for animal rights activists to apply to its Kickstarting for Good AI incubator and accelerator program aiming to launch and grow new non-profits and impacted initiatives where AI is leveraged for animal advocacy.
“Talking to over 100 experts, we have identified AI as one of the high-potential ‘idea areas’ to focus on in the next cohort at Kickstarting for Good,” says ProVeg’s founding president, Sebastian Joy.
The AI initiative is launched alongside tech-focused partner Vegan Hacktivist and the design-centered Violet Studios, a sister organization for ProVeg.”
AI facial recognition technology for cattle
May 21, 2024 (AgProud)
“Typically, when we ID cattle, we utilize visual forms of identification such as eartags and tattoos, which are prone to breakage and loss over time, including RFID tags that go in the ear. Chips under the skin also tend to migrate, and brands can become unreadable over time. Some of these can also be falsified; this is why facial recognition seemed like a valid idea, explains Olson.
With research at hand, the app CattleTracs was developed. Use of this app will be a way to trace disease in the beef supply chain and for cattle producers to age and source verify their product. CattleTracs is currently being enhanced to continue to collect and build a database, which is the biggest challenge, explains Hoagland.”
AI-powered early detection system launched at British Pig & Poultry Fair to boost pig farming and welfare
May 16, 2024 (Pig World)
“Boehringer Ingelheim has launched a device developed to detect respiratory diseases in pigs up to five days sooner than conventional methods.
The animal health company’s SoundTalks device, available across the UK and Ireland, is built on years of real farm sound data and harnesses artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Through early intervention, the company said the device has been shown to potentially reduce antibiotic usage and decrease mortality rates, supporting farmers in a challenging industry whilst also yielding a positive monthly return on investment.”
AI helps understand complex orangutan communication
May 15, 2024 (Cosmos)
“A new study published in the journal PeerJ Life & Environment sheds light on the complexities of Bornean orangutan vocalisations.
To decipher the orangutan calls, Erb’s team combined traditional audio-visual analysis with machine-learning techniques. They studied the long calls of 13 individual orangutans, or pulses, to determine the number of pulse types present.”
Video: AI in milk production
May 14, 2024 (McGill University)
“Dairy producers know that the slightest change in the behavior of cows can give an indication of their state of health. But since they can't be everywhere at once, artificial intelligence could help improve and extend the lives of their livestock. In McGill University's Macdonald Campus farm, researchers are developing tools to detect problems before they occur.”
Pig and poultry AI analysis looks to improve farm management
May 13, 2024 (Pig World)
“Farmex generates and analyses data from farms through Barn Report Pro, while Optifarm has an app that integrates data from various sources. AI is then employed to analyse measured parameters such as water use, temperature, or static pressure, and looks for any anomalies and possible correlatory explanations.
These results can then be sent direct to mobile phones and farm offices in real time, enabling decisions to be made immediately. The overarching goal is to help maximise both animal and bird welfare and create efficient, cost-effective production.”
Sperm whale 'phonetic alphabet' discovered
May 7, 2024 (Sky News)
“Scientists using artificial intelligence to decode the sounds made by sperm whales believe their calls are so complex they are similar to human language. New research by a group of experts studying a clan of whales in the East Caribbean found they use a 'morse code' of clicks, with the rhythm and tempo adding extra layers of complexity to convey meaning.
The calls are so rich in information that they are likely to help pods make group decisions and coordinate joint tasks, such as foraging for food and rearing young, according to the scientists on the long-term study, called Project Ceti.”
BiOceanOr: Revolutionising aquaculture with AI and BlueInvest
May 3, 2024 (European Commission)
“Leveraging expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and marine biology, BiOceanOr, a French start-up, is using AI technologies to help manage water quality and promote sustainable practices. They have developed AquaREAL, a unique service predicting water quality. Their mission is to deliver bio-guided services that optimise fish welfare and growth, while supporting sustainable aquaculture practices.”
BioRaptor and Aleph Farms use AI to lower the costs of cultivated beef
May 2, 2024 (NoCamels)
“The goal is to use AI to accelerate efficiency in cultivated meat production (also known as cultured meat), which is a form of cellular agriculture where meat is produced by cultivating animal cells in the lab.
Integrating BioRaptor’s unique AI operating system into Aleph Farms’ process development will underscore further scalability and cost reductions in the production of Aleph Cuts as the company prepares for its large-scale plants.”
How AI builds consumer connections with chicken brands
May 2, 2024 (WATT Poultry)
“One of the biggest benefits of AI for chicken marketers is its ability to track, monitor and even predict consumer trends.
“You can really get in there and type in keywords to get some ideas for what people are saying about your product and chicken in general,” she added. “It gives a snapshot of how people talk about products.” AI can also help automate processes, such as writing social media and other marketing copy.”
The insect farmers turning to AI to help lower costs
May 2, 2024 (BBC News)
“To try to reduce the price of its feed, Full Circle is now turning to AI to help maximise production at a lower cost. To do this it is training an AI system to study all available past and present data on insect farming to determine and then continuously fine tune the best methods.
This can include everything from temperature to food quantity, the optimum space that the larvae need, quickly and accurately counting thousands of flies, and whether to introduce new strains or species.”
Shiru Launches ProteinDiscovery.ai, the “World’s First” Protein Marketplace Touted as the Amazon of Proteins
May 1, 2024 (Vegconomist)
“California-based Shiru, an AI-enabled startup developing performance ingredients, announces the launch of what it claims to be the world’s first protein marketplace and discovery platform, ProteinDiscovery.ai.
Shiru‘s new platform catalogs millions of molecules by sequence, metadata, performance, and functional use. It allows users to discover, test, and purchase molecules for food, agriculture, personal care, and advanced material applications.”
5 reasons artificial intelligence makes farmers nervous
April 30, 2024 (Farm Progress)
“The emergence of artificial intelligence onto farms brings with it trepidation and concern for many growers — with good reason. If the scientists and agri-tech investors who are driving innovation at the highest levels are correct, AI is poised to indelibly change the way farmers do their work. Here are five of those concerns:
More education needed
Lack of connectivity
Change driven by outsiders
Data protection
Investment cost and risk”
To keep fish and shrimp healthy, farmers in Indonesia now have a copilot to help
April 30, 2024 (Microsoft)
“eFishery offers financing for feed and infrastructure where farmers pay after harvest. It also collects data from its automated eFeeders and water quality monitoring system and presents them as charts on its eFarm mobile app. To interpret those charts though, many farmers rely on an eFishery aquaculture technician who visits as often as twice weekly to answer questions.
Last year, eFishery began using Azure IoT to connect and communicate with its eFeeders and water quality monitors, gathering and analyzing data in real time. It also developed Mas Ahya using Azure OpenAI Service as a generative AI tool for farmers to get this data – and insights – as well as draw on eFishery’s proprietary expertise and best practices. Farmers can ask questions and get answers in plainspoken language and have this expertise in their hands anytime to maximize production.”
AI molecular farming making plant-based dairy easier and cheaper
April 28, 2024 (NoCamels)
“Evogene’s AI-powered genomic selection technology, GeneRator AI, is the backbone of Finally Foods’ molecular farming success.
“Our AI technology pinpoints the precise location and method for genetic modification,” says Ronen. “This translates to significant time and cost savings. Computational power is our guiding tool.””
Bezos Earth Fund is Offering $100M for AI-Led Climate Solutions, Including Alternative Proteins
April 26, 2024 (Green Queen)
“The Bezos Earth Fund has announced an AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, promising up to $100M in grants for solutions leveraging artificial intelligence – and alternative proteins are one of its key focus areas.”
How artificial intelligence is transforming the seafood sector
April 25, 2024 (Seafood Source)
“Quietly, the commercial fishing and aquaculture sectors are incorporating advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to transform their understanding of the global seafood industry and the ways they operate within it. From automating aquaculture practices to tracking dark fishing vessels in the open ocean, AI is revolutionizing the way fishers, regulators, and producers are interacting with the world’s oceans.”
This creamy vegan cheese was made with AI
April 24, 2024 (MIT Technology Review)
“Climax Foods is one of several startups, also including Shiru of Alameda, California, and NotCo of Chile, that have used artificial intelligence to design plant-based foods. The companies train algorithms on datasets of ingredients with desirable traits like flavor, scent, or stretchability. Then they use AI to comb troves of data to develop new combinations of those ingredients that perform similarly.
Not everyone in the industry is bullish about AI-assisted ingredient discovery. Jonathan McIntyre, a food consultant who formerly headed R&D teams in both beverages and snacks at Pepsi, thinks the technology is “significantly” overhyped as a tool for his field. “AI is only as good as the data you feed it,” he says. And given how jealously food companies guard formulas and proprietary information, he adds, there won’t necessarily be sufficient data to yield productive results. McIntyre has a cautionary tale: during his stint at Pepsi, the company attempted to use IBM’s Watson to create a better soda. “It formulated the worst-tasting thing ever,” he says.”
Breeding better hogs with artificial intelligence
April 24, 2024 (FarmProgress)
“As general manager of premium genetics for Smithfield Foods, Kent Gray’s job is to develop the genetic product that goes into the hogs Smithfield brings to market. It’s a complicated job that requires capturing a great deal of data. But it can be made easier with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
Smithfield Foods is examining AI and machine learning for ultrasound image interpretation, body weight estimation, and testicular ultrasound. Gray says the goal is to determine productive versus nonproductive boars and bring the most productive hogs to market.”
Dairy producers urged to use AI with caution
April 18, 2024 (The Western Producer)
“In the dairy sector, there are three main areas where AI tools appear, says Dr. Diego Nobrega, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary: physiology and health, animal reproduction and animal nutrition. Agriculture, and specifically dairy farms, are creating greater volumes of data. Accelerometers track cows’ movements throughout the day. Automated milking systems produce vast amounts of data on milk quality and cow behaviour. Cameras, boluses and ear tags add more data.
One of the challenges is to make sure that a tool is accurate enough to be a help, not a hindrance. For example, Nobrega says some mastitis assessment AI tools aim to detect mastitis before it is obvious. They have an 85 to 90 per cent accuracy rate. That might sound good, but that also means 10 per cent false positives. However, a detailed mastitis tool could reduce use of antibiotics on the farm.”
AI and beef: When good isn’t enough anymore
April 18, 2024 (Alberta Farmer)
“One visit to Titan Land and Cattle Company west of Edmonton highlighted how much data the beef industry collects on each animal’s health care, rate of gain, production costs, and more, Kanungo noted. “This industry is all about analyzing data to optimize efficiency and that is exactly what AI technology is designed to do.”
Making use of new technology is part of the picture when it comes to attracting and keeping young people in the business, he added. The question isn’t just about how to get young people involved in agriculture, but more specifically about “how do we show young people they can improve their status” by working in ag?”
AI Won’t Fix Animal Agriculture
April 18, 2024 (Undark)
“Precision Livestock Farming is a small but rapidly growing field. Although these tools have been around since the early 2000s, 65 percent of all literature on the matter was published in the past five years alone. Improvements in sensor technology and the computing power to interpret the sensors’ output are responsible for this. Artificial intelligence, or AI, in particular has given rise to many new PLF applications. Still, the reality of AI on farms, for now at least, is more mundane than what some may imagine: fewer robots, more surveillance cameras and buzzing sensors.
It is plainly inaccurate to frame PLF as a net positive for farmed animals. PLF methods will only be implemented when they benefit the animal slaughter industry by increasing efficiency and bolstering production. In perpetuating the exploitation of animals, PLF fundamentally opposes their best interests.”
How AI is helping NotCo cook up a plant-based takeover of Big Food
April 17, 2024 (Corporate Knights)
“NotCo’s line of plant-based milk, mayo, chicken, beef, ice cream and dulce de leche spread has paved the way for partnerships with Starbucks, Burger King, Papa Johns, Mars and, most recently, The Kraft Heinz Company, for which NotCo helped devise a plant-based version of its iconic mac and cheese.
NotCo’s secret weapon has been an artificial intelligence dubbed Giuseppe, after Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian artist known for paintings of human faces using fruits and vegetables. The algorithm mines the molecular and chemical properties of more than 300,000 plants for combinations that can mimic the components of animal-based foods and replace them.”
We Need to be Ready for Biotech’s ChatGPT Moment
April 16, 2024 (Time)
“Like the digital revolution, the biotech revolution stands to transform America’s economy as we know it—and it’s coming faster than we expect, turbocharged by AI. Recent advances in biotech are unlocking our ability to program biology just as we program computers. Just like OpenAI’s ChatGPT trains on human language input to come up with new text, AI models trained on biological sequences could design novel proteins, predict cancer growth, and create other useful consumables. In the future, AI will be able to help us run through millions of theoretical and actual biological experiments, more accurately predicting outcomes without arduous trial-and-error—vastly accelerating the rate of new discoveries.”
Our better nature – AI’s impact on agriculture as a force for good
April 11, 2024 (Stuff)
“AI is turning farmers’ #1 animal issue – parasite treatment – on its head. For decades, standard farming practice has been to drench all sheep in the flock to rid them of parasites. Straight away, drench resistance also appeared, and treatments became less and less effective.
Techion has partnered with fellow Kiwi tech innovator and AI specialist Aware to create devices that detect parasite eggs from poo samples, using Aware’s breakthrough crowd counting technology. AI allows farmers to immediately identify which animals have infestations that require treatment, as well as whether different types of drench are working.”
New AI system detects animals on roads to prevent accidents
April 10, 2024 (Earth.com)
“Brazilian scientists are developing a system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and warn drivers about animals ahead, reducing dangerous collisions.
Imagine you’re driving down a scenic highway. Lush rainforests surround you, the sun is shining, and you’re enjoying the road trip. But then, an unexpected obstacle appears – a tapir crosses the road.
Animal-involved car accidents are a serious problem, causing injury and death to humans while also devastating wildlife populations. In Brazil alone, an estimated 475 million animals are killed on roads each year. This research could drastically reduce the numbers.”
GEA adds proven AI solution to portfolio with CattleEye acquisition
April 8, 2024 (Feedstuffs)
“CattleEye is an artificial intelligence system designed to detect and predict lameness in cows quickly. Next to mastitis, lameness is a major disease in dairy cows that can lead to infertility and decreased milk yields. CattleEye also provides critical data to assess body condition scores, which helps analyze cow health after calving, determine ration adjustments and monitor the cow’s general physical condition. By using this AI-based software, farmers can take immediate action to improve the welfare and productivity of their herd.”
How AI is being used to prevent illegal fishing
April 4, 2024 (BBC News)
“Late last year, the Spanish government fined 25 Spanish-flagged fishing ships that had been operating near Argentina's territorial waters. The financial penalties were imposed because the vessels had illegally turned off the GPS-based automatic identification systems (AIS), which were transmitting their positions. This is often a sign that a vessel is engaged in illegal fishing.
To try to better monitor and quantify the problem of overfishing, Global Fishing Watch is now using increasingly sophisticated AI software, and satellite imagery, to globally map the movements of more than 65,000 commercial fishing vessels, both those with and without AIS.”
The Kraft Heinz Not Company to Leverage AI and Brand Equity to Fill Plant-Based Market Gaps in 2024
April 3, 2024 (Vegconomist)
“The joint venture plans to leverage the dual strengths that set it apart from rivals: Kraft Heinz’s robust brand equity and NotCo’s cutting-edge AI platform, Giuseppe. This unique combination enables the company to replicate the dairy, meat, and egg ingredients used in Kraft Heinz’s signature products. This includes notable introductions such as sliced cheese, Mac & Cheese, mayonnaise, and most recently, Oscar Mayer-branded hot dogs and sausages.”
Artificial intelligence in the barn
April 2, 2024 (McGill Reporter)
“The goal of the project is to structure the collection, storage, transfer, analysis and presentation of data in the barn so that farmers can make use of it. “The idea is to detect early signs of physical and mental health that are not visible to the naked eye, but which could be detrimental to the well-being and longevity of cattle, and to help farmers anticipate any problems that may arise.””
Opinion: The real AI nightmare: What if it serves humans too well?
March 31, 2024 (Los Angeles Times)
“In the U.S. alone, we have billions of animals subjected to captivity, torturous practices and denial of their basic psychological and physiological needs at any given time. Entire species are subjugated and systemically slaughtered so that we can have omelets, burgers and shoes.
If AI does exactly what “we” (whoever programs the system) want it to, that would likely mean enacting this mass cruelty more efficiently, at an even greater scale and with more automation and fewer opportunities for sympathetic humans to step in and flag anything particularly horrifying.
Indeed, in factory farming, this is already happening, albeit on a much smaller scale than what is possible.”
Next-gen AI solutions herald a new era of farm management
March 29, 2024 (Poultry World)
“Although some novel technologies require substantial investments, analysts believe digital transformation is worth the money. In fact, in the long run, poultry farmers may have no choice but to introduce AI technologies, especially given that some reports predict a steady decline in the poultry industry’s average profitability over the coming years. Dr. Costa warns that the high cost of labour is a considerable disadvantage for the European and US poultry industries compared to emerging economies. “Thus, these industries must increase efficiencies or reduce labour costs to avoid losing profitability, as the poultry industries in developing countries evolve. The most effective way to improve efficiencies and reduce costs is through technological development, so AI will be key in the coming years,” says Dr. Costa.”
AI in Animal Health Market Will Reach USD 7,477.9 Million by 2033
March 28, 2024 (Market.US)
“The Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Animal Health Market has experienced a notable surge in valuation, from USD 1,197.7 million in 2023 to an anticipated USD 7,477.9 million by 2033, achieving a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20.1%. This robust growth is underpinned by the integration of cutting-edge computational methods like machine learning and data analysis, which significantly enhance diagnosis, treatment, and management of animal health.”
AI to track hedgehog populations in pioneering UK project
March 25, 2024 (The Guardian)
“Artificial intelligence will be used for the first time to track hedgehog populations as part of a pioneering project aimed at understanding how many of them are left in the UK and why they have suffered a decline.
Images of the prickly mammals snuffling around urban parks, private gardens, woodlands and farmland will be captured by cameras and filtered by AI trained to differentiate between wildlife and humans. The images will then be sent to human “spotters” who will pick out those featuring hedgehogs and send them to analysts, who will record the numbers and locations.”
The dangers of AI farming
March 22, 2024 (Aeon)
“We need to do better. We need goldilocks principles for AI in farming: detailed enough to provide real ethical constraints and to steer the sector in the right direction, yet still general enough to cover a wide range of future applications of the technology. The goal should be a set of principles strong enough to ensure AI is used in a way that improves rather than erodes animal welfare standards. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we do want to make four proposals to get the discussion started.”
Data will drive the fish farm of the future
March 22, 2024 (Fish Farmer Magazine)
“Leveraging data, automation, and cutting-edge tech like IoT, Big Data, AI, and robotics into existing production systems promises to provide a paradigm shift in global aquatic food production.
Citing examples of practical data and AI applications from its Norwegian land-based salmon farm, Salmon Evolution’s Trond Hakon Schaug-Pettersen said, “We use AI applications for controlling feed intake and waste reduction. We always collect an enormous amount of data and are striving for a constant and optimal environment.” In 2023, Salmon Evolution was positioned as the world’s largest and leading land-based producer of Atlantic salmon leading land-based producer of Atlantic salmon and Schaug-Pettersen sees advanced AI integration as an integral part of the company’s long-term competitive advantage, “These insights help us improve farm operations to optimise the output, in terms of volume, quality and cost.””
Bee-Free Honey: MeliBio Partners with Pow.Bio to Scale Up Precision-Fermented Sweetener with AI
March 22, 2024 (Green Queen)
“The partnership will allow MeliBio to tap into Pow.Bio’s expertise in blending traditional fermentation with a continuous approach led by AI. “Pow.Bio is helping MeliBio further understand and optimise our precision fermentation approach as we scale towards manufacturing readiness,” Schaller told Green Queen. “Pow.Bio is unique in that their fermentation platform utilises AI to maximize efficiency, which we plan to explore further in our work together.””
AI shakes up monitoring of poultry
March 18, 2024 (The Canberra Times)
“FLOX works to improve the health, welfare, and performance of chickens in farms across Europe and North America. The company's artificial intelligence platform is called FLOX 360 and helps farmers monitor their chickens in every house on the farm with off-the-shelf cameras and sensors.
The data used by enterprise-grade AI algorithms to weigh birds and figure out how they're moving, is then alerted to relevant parties through dashboards.”
Wildlife threats can be identified using AI technology
March 15, 2024 (Earth.com)
“A groundbreaking study led by the University of Sussex reveals how artificial intelligence (AI) and social media are becoming invaluable tools in detecting threats to wildlife around the world.
The research team employed AI to sift through online data from various platforms including Facebook, X/Twitter, Google, and Bing, to unveil the global scope of hunting and trade threats facing bats.”
AI seen as potential cure for farming ills
March 12, 2024 (Baking Business)
“Artificial intelligence stands as the fourth revolution in agriculture, “which is truly expected to transform agriculture,” said Madhu Khanna, PhD. One of the most promising avenues for AI lies in its ability to harness machine learning techniques for analyzing data sourced from precision farming, GPS, maps, and other relevant datasets.
Another important application for agricultural AI resides in livestock farming, where technologies are being researched and developed by the Artificial Intelligence for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management, and Sustainability (AIFARMS) Institute, where Khanna is associate director of technology adoption and public policy. Researchers at AIFarms developed “computer vision” to monitor animals around the clock, track their overall health, the status of their reproductive cycle, and maintain facilities with minimal human labor. ”
How Norwegian aquaculture rides the wave of rising salmon prices
March 12, 2024 (Food Ingredients First)
“Norway, as the world's leading salmon producer, has adopted several AI and tech solutions. Companies are using AI-powered monitoring systems for early detection of diseases and parasites such as sea lice. Drones and robots are employed for tasks like sea floor inspections. AI is also used to monitor fish health and behavior, predict diseases, control feed quantity and timing, and improve breeding processes. This enhances yield and quality, minimizes environmental impact and reduces operational costs.”
EU Environmentalists Demand Reforms in AI Law to Address Animal Welfare Concerns
March 11, 2024 (Breaking Latest News)
“Environmentalists in the European Union are raising concerns about the Artificial Intelligence law within the bloc, citing a lack of consideration for the potential impacts of AI systems on animal welfare. They are calling for reforms that address this issue, as well as advocate for plant-based diets.”
South Korea adopts AI to enhance farming efficiency and protect animal welfare
March 7, 2024 (Food Ingredients First)
“The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has unveiled a comprehensive work plan to propel the agricultural sector. The Ministry wants to see a future-oriented growth trajectory through regulatory innovation, removal of cross-ministerial and private sector barriers, digital transformation, and technological advancements.
The Ministry says the authority will start integrating AI and digital technologies to improve cultivation and livestock farming in 2024.”
Blood biomarkers could drive broiler nutrition decisions
March 7, 2024 (WATT Poultry)
“Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning could analyze poultry blood biomarkers to detect potential performance and health challenges, leading to more proactive, data-driven decisions about bird nutrition.
“This technology uses machine learning to take all the data that’s collected – not just blood data, but also seasonality, the breed, the sex of the bird and other metrics – and feed it into the neural network technology that makes predictions and then beyond that even prescriptive type of diagnostics,” explained Matthew Livingston, Verax business development manager, dsm-firmenich.”
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Livestock, Fisheries, and Poultry Farming
March 5, 2024 (Technology Times)
“Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative tool for data-driven decision-making in various fields, and the livestock industry is no exception. In this article, we explore the significant impact of AI on livestock, fisheries, and poultry farming, with a specific focus on Pakistan. From monitoring and forecasting to disease management and farm optimization, AI offers numerous benefits to the agricultural sector.”
Indonesia’s fisheries sector seeks greater use of AI to close technology gap
March 4, 2024 (The Business Times)
“The national effort has placed the spotlight on the aquaculture startups in the industry, many of which are making use of technology to tap on the demand. Temasek-backed eFishery, which was founded in 2013 and has since become a unicorn, is among those using the internet-of-things, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep tech to help solve the country’s food security issues.
While many traditional farmers still manually feed the fish by hand, eFishery assists breeders with automatic feeding tools. These feeders detect the hunger levels of fish and shrimp through their movements, which prevents the problem of over-feeding or under-feeding when the process is done manually. The sensors can also be used to measure the temperature and humidity in the water so that the best production levels can be achieved.”
‘The Hidden Battle In Our Food System’: New Report On Meat Industry Disinformation
March 1, 2024 (Plant Based News)
“A new report from The Freedom Food Alliance analyzes how publicity campaigns by the meat and dairy industry can negatively impact global food systems and the environment. Titled ‘Harvesting Denial, Distractions,& Deception: Revealing Animal Agriculture’s Disinformation Strategies and Exploring Solutions’, the new report’s key findings include:
A detailed analysis of online campaigns like #YesToMeat; how AI can manipulate social media narratives in the food sector; how corporate-funded science can propagate misleading information; and how all of the above impact policy-making decisions and public understanding of the meat industry.”
AI-Powered, Plant-Based Dog Food Brand PawCo Raises $2M to Scale Its Operations
February 29, 2024 (Yahoo! Finance)
“PawCo Foods, a plant-based pet nutrition brand dedicated to providing high-quality, sustainable, and scientifically-formulated food for dogs, today announced a $2 million seed funding round led by Elevate Ventures, as well as other angel investors such as Arash Ferdowsi, co-founder of Dropbox.
Founded by Dr. Mahsa Vazin, a former scientist at Impossible Foods, PawCo is the first plant-based dog food company to utilize AI technology for nutrition optimization and palatability improvement. The company created the first fresh plant-based meat for dogs, GreenMeat™, which is used as the base for all of its products and recipes.”
AI tool can detect lameness in cattle before visible signs appear
February 27, 2024 (Dairy Reporter)
“The tool, which is currently being tested by UK-based researchers, is the first of its kind to offer that level of detection. Hoof Monitor is fitted to the cows’ feet and can detect changes in temperature in individual legs and feet. Meanwhile, AI is used for automation purposes, replacing the need to conduct manual locomotion scoring.”
Alt-protein, agriculture and AI: Cargill’s CTO unravels macrotrends in human and animal nutrition
February 23, 2024 (WattAg Net)
“We see some really exciting examples. We have a project called Galleon that allows us to screen the DNA of the microbiome of a chicken flock — so a farmer can get samples of chicken poop from their farm, send it to us, and we run an analysis and tell them how healthy that flock is. The farmer can then adjust the feed to improve the health of the chicken flock. Over time, as we get better data around different chicken farms, we can see there may be a lot of fluctuation in farm A and much more stability in farm B, so we can adjust and predict what the farmer will need. So, the model is learning by getting more data from more samples. A healthy flock will be more productive and have less mortality, and it will be better for the GHG footprint.”
The Earth Species Project Aims to Revolutionize Human-Animal Communication through AI
February 25, 2024 (BNN)
“The Earth Species Project, pioneering this effort, acknowledges the challenges in data collection and the ethical considerations that come with interpreting animal vocalizations. Ensuring the technology accurately reflects the intentions and emotions of animals is paramount to avoid misrepresentation or misunderstanding. Moreover, the ethical implications of such profound interaction with animals raise questions about consent, privacy, and the potential for exploitation.
Yet, the pursuit of a world where humans and animals can communicate directly is a testament to our evolving relationship with the natural world. As researchers continue to fine-tune this AI technology, the dream of bridging the communication gap between humans and animals inches closer to reality, promising a new era of connection, understanding, and shared stewardship of our planet.”
Cobb Research Initiative could advance poultry genetics
February 23, 2024 (WattAg Net)
“The Cobb Research Initiative (CRI) has opened a second round of applications of funding for research projects that address crucial challenges and advance genetic progress in the poultry industry.
“Five of the 9 used artificial intelligence (AI), neural networking, machine learning and digital phenotyping in some way as part of the project and I would say I was pleasantly surprised at that,” Herring explained.”
Forum details the potential benefits of digitalization for ag stakeholders
February 21, 2024 (Meat + Poultry)
“Lowenberg-DeBoer predicted that, while we see growing prevalence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) globally, it will likely be most incorporated into the business realm of agriculture rather than the production side. Within production, Lowenberg-DeBoer anticipates a more focused use of AI.
Chandra spoke on a need for improvement of technology integration across the food supply chain. “We believe that if you can make the entire food supply chain — all the way from input companies to farmers to logistics providers, warehouses, distributors, retailers, even the consumer — if every entity could be made more data-driven, if they could start using data and AI, it could lead to significant efficiencies throughout the food supply chain,” he said.”
How vertical farms are shaping the future of cultivated meat
February 19, 2024 (Vertical Farm Daily)
“They are a feast for the eyes: the vertical farms of the Berlin-based Lite & Fog. However, they are more than just good-looking. The farms are an upgraded version of traditional vertical farms. By using a zero-gravity irrigation system, ultrasound, and AI, the company is making sure plants are grown the best way possible, perfect for the development of cultivated meat.”
AI tells beavers apart by the ‘fingerprint’ patterns on their tails
February 16, 2024 (Science)
“As the species recovers, researchers have been estimating the size of populations using ear tags and radio collars. But capturing beavers can stress them, so scientists trained a pattern-learning type of artificial intelligence on images of tails from 100 Eurasian beavers that had been hunted in Norway. The program was 96% accurate at telling the animals apart.”
Stock up on our livestock innovations and technology
February 15, 2024 (CSIRO)
“Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), wearables and strategy modelling are coming to the fore. We’ve started researching computer vision coupled with machine learning as a way of monitoring and understanding the behaviour of livestock in different environments.
Like humans, sheep, cattle and other livestock vocalise to communicate what they’re feeling – desires, contentment, stress or pain. We hope if we can better understand sheep and cattle, it will offer another way we can help with their productivity and welfare. So we're using microphones and AI to recognise when livestock animals are talking. We then want to know what they’re saying. In other words, we want to go from ‘is that a baaa’? to ‘is that a happy baaa?’”
The startup that plans to reduce antibiotic use in aquaculture
February 12, 2024 (The Fish Site)
“Chilean biotech startup Aquit is developing a preventative treatment against infections in fish that boosts natural immunity, improves survival rates and replaces the need for antibiotics, according to CEO Daniela Allerbon.
“We are going to replicate our technology using an AI platform – we are training our algorithm to recognise the proteins in salmon that have very important needs, not only to do with immunity, but also growth, [feed] conversion rates, and things to do with health,” explains Allerbon. “It will then be able to identify proteins in other fish and produce them in the same way that we are producing our first product.””
Multimillion-dollar project to improve planning capabilities for beef producers
February 8, 2024 (Greater Kashmir)
“Ten industry research and agtech stakeholders are partnering in a new $6.5 million project using Artificial Intelligence to improve on-farm forecasting for livestock producers.
The three-year partnership, titled Foragecaster, aims to create an AI-supported grazing planner that changes the game for livestock producers who want to leverage predictive data to mitigate risks associated with changing climate conditions.”
Seafood Industry: The Digital Divide and the Promising Role of AI
February 7, 2024 (BNN)
“The seafood industry is facing a disparity in digital technology adoption across different segments. While aquaculture is embracing newer technologies, traditional sectors like seafood processing lag behind. This digital divide is reflected in the investments made in these sectors, with aquaculture receiving significantly more funding. The promising role of AI, especially in Automated Visual Inspection, has the potential to revolutionise the industry.”
Hong Kong’s rat problem tackled with new AI and hi-tech surveillance equipment
February 6, 2024 (South China Morning Post)
“Hong Kong authorities have turned to hi-tech surveillance techniques to track rat activity – a method said to be more accurate than the former approach of using sweet potato as bait. Authorities on Tuesday said they had deployed thermal cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to more accurately measure the rodent problem across the city.”
Speciesism in AI: Built-in biases hinder animal welfare reform and plant-based diets
February 5, 2024 (Food Ingredients First)
“The proliferation of AI systems is exacerbating the issue of speciesism and undermining animal welfare reform and the transition to plant-based diets, warn animal protection groups. Incoming regulation, notably the highly anticipated EU AI Act, fails to address the potential impacts of AI systems on animal welfare. However, AI systems have also helped advance animal welfare standards, for example, with animal testing alternatives, alternative protein production and vegan-friendly chatbots.”
The NIH plan to spare the animals
February 5, 2024 (Politico)
“The National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, will prioritize investing in so-called “novel alternative methods” of research that don’t rely on animal testing. Such methods include computation modeling and predictive technologies, cell-free methods and cell-based models. The NIH already has a foundation of such work, such as cells and tissues grown on chips, AI models for neurodegenerative disease and biochemical screening for skin irritation.”
AI: Good news for monkeys
February 2, 2024 (Financial Times)
“Advances in artificial intelligence are now offering new opportunities to tackle the pharmaceutical industry’s still massive reliance on animal testing. Quantiphi, an AI start-up based in Boston, embarked on a mission last year to build “digital animal replacement technology”, known as Dart.
The company has found that the technology can reduce both the time and cost of the pre-clinical testing phase of drug development by 45 per cent.”
The Brady Hunter Foundation Partners with Animal Survival International to Sponsor Anti-Poaching AI Collars
January 30, 2024 (PR Newswire)
“The anti-poaching collars donated by the Brady Hunter Foundation utilize a combination of sophisticated sensors, GPS tracking, and artificial intelligence algorithms to detect and deter potential poachers. This technology not only enhances the security of endangered animals but also provides real-time data to conservationists, enabling more effective monitoring and response strategies.”
How computer science and artificial intelligence can enhance commercial fishing
January 29, 2024 (Global Seafood Alliance)
“The potential of AI is clear to Edwin van Helmond of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, who is using this branch of computer science to address unwanted catches. He is part of the Fully Documented Fisheries (FDF) project, which is using an AI-based tool to improve the way EU fisheries manage and document their catches.
The tool is installed on beam trawlers and scans two conveyor belts in real-time before algorithms identify fish species, size and weight. It is also used to automatically register discards and remove the burden of discard registration from fishers. In the Western Indian Ocean, another model is accurately estimating coastal fish stocks from land using satellite data.”
How AI Can Help Treat (and Cure) Your Dog’s Cancer
January 29, 2024 (The Daily Beast)
“For the first time, pet owners and veterinarians have a tool that could potentially target an animal’s specific cancer with the creation of an AI-predicted panel of effective drugs—but there is work to be done when it comes to both accessibility and accuracy.”
Rapid advances in biotech and AI hold huge promise for future food security
January 25, 2024 (Daily Maverick)
“The combination of our biotech knowledge with the recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) will provide a tremendous boost to cellular agriculture in the months and years ahead.
It has become astonishingly easier to model proteins and forecast chemistry using smarter, adapted AI applications. Companies that can effectively leverage AI will flatten barriers, saving months of research and development time.”
Open Paws: “AI Can Play a Crucial Role in Marketing and Customer Engagement for Vegan Businesses”
January 23, 2024 (Vegconomist)
“Open Paws is a groundbreaking nonprofit dedicated to using AI to make animal exploitation obsolete. Its core mission is to build open-source AI models for animal advocates, help animal rights charities and plant-based / vegan businesses implement AI in their workflows, and advocate for systemic consideration for animals in the wider AI industry.”
Beyond Honeycomb introduces AI chef solution to Hanam Pig
January 23, 2024 (The Chosun Daily)
“The South Korean food tech startup Beyond Honeycomb has entered into an agreement to provide its AI chef solution to the premium pork belly brand ‘Hanam Pig.’ Building upon this business agreement, Beyond Honeycomb aims to utilize its dataset of over 500,000 food items to analyze Hanam Pig’s cooking style. The plan is to develop a customized kitchen solution covering aspects such as maintaining meat quality, initial processing techniques, and service methods.”
We Should Stop Comparing Animal and Artificial Intelligence
January 22, 2024 (Psychology Today)
“Language is powerful, especially in areas that are as hard-fought and delicate as animal rights. It might seem unlikely that a brief comment associating machines and animals could have any measurable impact on our ideas about animal minds, but time and again we see the power words have in shaping our perception of the world. If it turns out that machines could become conscious, they will be conscious in their own unique way. Not like a human, or a whale, or a rat. Like a machine.”
AI's cluck-worthy success in chicken farming
January 19, 2024 (China Daily)
“Over a span of eight months, around a dozen students from the class dedicated themselves to developing an intelligent breeding system for Silkie chickens. The project aimed to address the challenges of large-scale farming, particularly the difficulty in monitoring the health and movements of the free-roaming chickens, which have a breeding history of 300 years. As a result, the system significantly increased the output rate at the breeding base by 30 percent, yielding an additional 60,000 chickens.
“We decided to have the cafeteria turn these black-boned birds into AI chicken soup before the holiday to give teachers and students a taste of technology," said Chen Sirui, a student in the Tencent class.”
The Revolutionary Impact of AI and Drones on Animal Healthcare
January 19, 2024 (The Independent)
“The impact of AI is particularly significant for veterinarians in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who face resource constraints and limited access to veterinary facilities. With expanding internet connectivity, AI-enabled telemedicine platforms can provide virtual support, allowing veterinarians to consult with AI-powered virtual assistants for remote diagnosis and disease management.
Drones, on the other hand, are transforming animal healthcare through their delivery and surveillance capabilities. These unmanned aerial vehicles can rapidly transport critical medical supplies and vaccines to remote and inaccessible regions, overcoming logistical challenges on the ground. Drones also excel in monitoring and tracking animal behavior, detecting early signs of illness, and identifying conditions that require isolation to prevent the spread of diseases in livestock.”
Mediterranean Food Lab raises $17m series A to scale up AI-powered solid state fermentation tech
January 17, 2024 (AgFunder News)
“While solid state fermentation has been used for centuries (think natto and kimchi), MFL turns it from an art to a science, using its machine learning platform to understand what to put in […]. “We use AI to discover correlations between molecules and sensorial qualities – including correlations not yet discovered. We use data science to help us make better flavor blends and formulations, to track and improve production processes and more.””
Farmers want to "talk" to their cows, so AI is helping them interpret 'moos' and burps
January 17, 2024 (Earth.com)
“Dr. Chen, alongside his co-investigator, Virginia Cooperative Extension dairy scientist and Associate Professor Gonzalo Ferreira, is gearing up to collect and analyze a wealth of audio data from cows, calves, and beef cattle.
Utilizing advanced machine learning techniques, they aim to catalog thousands of acoustic data points to interpret cow vocalizations, including mooing, chewing, and burping, for signs of stress or illness.”
Livestock vets to get AI boost
January 16, 2024 (Farmers Weekly NZ)
“An app being beta-tested across New Zealand will use AI to make clinical notes for veterinarians, do their invoicing, help predict disease outbreaks and give them instant access to thousands of journal articles while they are on farm.
The chief technology officer at Qrious, Christopher Laing, said software used in the Ingenum app was first developed to store clinical data and help predict livestock disease outbreaks.”
AI system can predict the hour an animal gives birth
January 15, 2024 (The Independent)
“A new AI camera system has been developed that can predict the hour a cow will give birth. The technology, created by Japanese camera maker Nikon, means farmers could soon be receiving notifications on their smartphones alerting them to the expected time a calf is due.
A camera fitted with the artificial intelligence monitors cows for signs that they are about to go into labour, offering about five hours of notice before the cow delivers. Signals that the camera can pick up on include increased or erratic movement, as well as the emergence of the amniotic sac. The same system could potentially be trained on other data sets, offering the ability to predict when other animals are about to give birth.”
The chicken whisperers? Humans can surprisingly decipher chicken emotions from their clucks
January 11, 2024 (ZME Science)
““Our hope is that in future research, specific acoustic cues that predict how humans rate arousal in chicken calls could be identified, and these results could potentially be used in artificially intelligent-based detection systems to monitor vocalizations in chickens,” Henning said.
“This would allow for the development of automated assessments of compromised or good welfare states within poultry management systems.”
Nasekomo secures €8m in funding to drive expansion of AI-assisted insect bioconversion
January 11, 2024 (Feed Navigator)
“Founded in 2017 by Marc Bolard, Xavier, and Olga Marcenac, Nasekomo focuses on technologies to enhance insect protein production based on Black Soldier Flies (BSF). It wants to “play a pivotal role in advancing the industrialization of insect farming for high-quality protein production, addressing global protein demand, food access challenges, and sustainability issues in feed production.”
Building on its December 2023 strategic partnership with Siemens, Nasekomo believes it can digitize the insect industry by leveraging robotic technology for insect cultivation, digitalizing engineering, and production processes, aligning digitalization with sustainability goals. The collaborative effort is aimed at establishing an 'AI native' insect industry, maximizing returns through AI and machine learning (ML) solutions.”
These smart binoculars can identify birds and animals for you
January 10, 2024 (The Verge)
“First, we got AI-powered bird feeders that can tell you who is visiting your backyard, and now, a new pair of AI-supported binoculars can identify over 9,000 species of birds and other wildlife while you’re hiking in the woods or roaming the halls of CES.”
Conservation X Labs announces merger with AI nonprofit Wild Me
January 10, 2024 (Mongabay)
“Conservation technology company Conservation X Labs has announced a merger with Wild Me, a nonprofit that focuses on using artificial intelligence for conservation purposes.
The two organizations plan to combine their resources and expertise to ramp up the use of artificial intelligence to prevent the sixth mass extinction. The merger comes at a time when AI’s role in biodiversity monitoring and conservation has seen rising popularity.”
Using AI to give meat alternatives a more tempting texture
January 9, 2024 (NoCamels)
“Foodtech companies may have honed the taste and the look of meat alternatives, but they have yet to perfect the texture or production costs, research shows.
Presented with this pair of pressing issues, Israeli artificial intelligence expert Noa Weiss created the GreenProtein AI non-profit, which analyzes data gathered from multiple food firms to improve the production process for meat alternatives, known as extrusion.
The aim is to create something that feels more like the real thing in your mouth while reducing the cost of a notoriously expensive process.”
The AI Imperative Across the Meat and Poultry Sector
January 8, 2024 (FMI)
“While it’s a leading agenda item, what’s less clear is how, when, where and why to proceed with AI at respective points in meat production and retailing. This broad technology can be used to optimize cutting in meat processing facilities and to determine optimal flavor combinations in value-added products. At the store level, retailers can rely on AI to better predict demand for right-size assortments and pricing.
Those are just a few of myriad examples of potential AI applications. The simultaneous challenge and beauty of AI is the often-dizzying array of uses, not to mention the benefits and drawbacks of young, highly advanced technologies.”
Pawco launches AI-powered dog food: Healthier and more affordable
January 4, 2024 (MenaFN)
“Founded by a former ImpossibleFoods employee and supported by a dedicated team of scientists and board-certified animal nutritionists, PawCo pioneered GreenMeatTM, the first fully plant-based meat tailored for pet food, and are now expanding their product range. The team's dedication lies in offering pets complete and balanced plant-based meals. These new products are set to redefine canine nutrition with their unique features and health benefits.”
AI and video helping salmon data collection in Indigenous communities
January 4, 2024 (Cosmos)
““Without real-time data on salmon returns, it’s extremely difficult to build climate-smart, responsive fisheries,” says Dr Will Atlas […] Atlas says Salmon Vision fills this crucial information void, offering a tool for First Nation fisheries managers and other organizations both in decision-making contexts and in remote rivers across salmon territory where on-the-ground data collection is logistically challenging and expensive. The technology combines artificial intelligence with traditional fishing weir techniques.”
AI, satellites expose 75% of fish industry ‘Ghost Fleets’ plundering oceans
January 4, 2024 (Interesting Engineering)
“We combine satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models to map industrial vessel activities and offshore energy infrastructure across the world's coastal waters from 2017 to 2021. We find that 72–76% of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, with much of that fishing taking place around South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.”
Revolutionizing Animal Welfare: Indian Startups Lead With AI Technology
January 4, 2024 (The Logical Indian)
“In the bustling city of Mumbai, WildEye, a pioneering startup, is utilizing AI-powered camera traps and sensors to revolutionize wildlife conservation. The application of AI algorithms enables the identification and tracking of individual animals, studying their behavior, and detecting signs of distress or danger.
In the heart of Delhi, PetPulse is transforming the landscape of pet welfare through its innovative mobile app. Using AI-powered facial recognition technology, the app analyzes pet facial expressions, providing real-time insights into their emotional states.”
Talking to the animals? With AI tech, it may be a possibility
January 3, 2024 (Yahoo News)
“The ultimate goal of Earth Species Project (ESP) is to communicate with animals, but along the way, several smaller steps could change what we know about the animal kingdom. In a nutshell, the group is trying to decode animal communication through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Scientists have been collecting sounds, calls, chirps and various animal vocalizations for decades. Animals, like humans, have a wide range of vocalizations. The hope is that AI models being developed by ESP can work like ChatGPT or Dall-E does for human input, and turn those vocalizations into something more recognizable to humans.”
Cute AI Pet Pal robot ‘resembles a real pet’ and is the future of companionship
January 2, 2024 (The Focus)
“Do you want a pet without the work or responsibility? Well, AI Pet Pal has just the thing – a robot companion! The Swedish company’s adorable AI robot pet has gone viral on TikTok and everyone wants to get their hands on one.”
Scientists are attempting to track 1,000 cattle and buffalo from space using GPS, AI and satellites
January 1, 2023 (EuroNews)
“An estimated 22,000 buffalo roam free in a remote location of Arnhem Land, Australia, but no one knows the exact number. What is certain though, is how much they destroy the environment.
Microsoft technologies create a digital twin of the land combined with terrain and weather data. Once the rangers know where the animals tend to live, they can concentrate on conservation efforts – by fencing off important sites or even culling them.”
AI is making a wildly adventurous and sustainable plant diet possible
January 2023 (Anthropocene)
“NotCo’s central product isn’t really, when you get down to it, milk. It’s a set of artificial intelligence algorithms that look for connections between the qualities of some of our most beloved foods and the taste, smell, and texture of ingredients from plants. The technology, whimsically named Giuseppe, has the potential to make it faster and easier to design plant-based foods that meet people where they’re at—getting them onto a plant-based diet without making them give up tastes they love.”
UK: Multus and New Wave Biotech Merge in AI Partnership to Lower the Costs of Cultivated Meat
December 2023 (Vegconomist)
“Multus, a UK growth media innovator for cultivated meat, and London-based New Wave Biotech, a leader in AI bioprocess optimization software, are joining forces to lower the costs of cultivated meat using AI.
Multus develops food-safe, animal-free growth media for the cultivated meat industry through AI, lab automation, and novel ingredients. New Wave Biotech develops AI bioprocess optimization software to help biotech companies launch their products more quickly and at a lower cost.”
2023 in review: Beyond Meat in ‘survival’ mode, ‘jaundiced’ indoor ag investors, AI in every pitchdeck…
December 29, 2023 (AgFunder News)
“You’ll be hard pressed to find an agrifoodtech startup that doesn’t mention AI somewhere in its pitchdeck these days, although it will take time to determine exactly where it can be truly transformative.
During the year, we spoke to firms using AI and machine learning (ML) for everything from materials discovery to more efficient extrusion of plant proteins, supply chain risk analysis, optimized cell culture media formulation for cultivated meat, new product development, and ag robotics.”
Creature Feature: Safari Across 5 Animal-Focused AI Initiatives of 2023
December 28, 2023 (Nvidia)
“Conservation AI, a U.K.-based nonprofit, is preserving biodiversity with an edge AI platform that analyzes camera footage in real time to identify species of interest, rapidly alerting conservationists to threats such as wildfires or poachers […] Colossal Biosciences is tackling endangered species conservation and de-extinction using computational biology […] GoSmart, a member of the NVIDIA Inception program for cutting-edge startups and the NVIDIA Metropolis vision AI partner ecosystem, is deploying AI for more efficient and sustainable fish farming […] Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa are analyzing satellite imagery using NVIDIA GPU-powered AI to track halos — the rings of sand that surround coral reefs — as a way to assess ecosystem health […] An autonomous underwater robot powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX module is roaming reef ecosystems to help scientists understand human impact on reefs and surrounding sea creatures.”
Korea’s The PlantEat Uses AI to Make Soybeans Better-Tasting & More Digestible
December 22, 2023 (Vegconomist)
“Korean food tech company The PlantEat has used artificial intelligence to develop a variety of soybeans that is said to address several challenges commonly faced by plant-based food manufacturers.
The new variety — called Hayoung — is non-GMO and does not have the off-taste and indigestibility often associated with soybeans. As reported by The Chosun, it also improves yields, with 100 beans producing 32.3 grams after processing compared to 21 grams for conventional soybeans. Additionally, The PlantEat claims that the beans do not contain the proteins that typically cause soy allergies.”
Maximizing your herd’s efficiency with the power of artificial intelligence
December 20, 2023 (Farmers Weekly)
“Almost all cows suffer from a period of negative energy balance during the transition period between the dry and lactating stages of the dairy production cycle. This puts the cow at higher risk of metabolic diseases like ketosis, as well as lameness and mastitis, which affect both animal health and production.
Predicta GUARDIAN uses artificial intelligence (AI) to run daily checks on herd management software, registering unusual events and flagging any at-risk animals.”
How to produce higher value alternative proteins with less cost, waste and energy
December 20, 2023 (FoodNavigator Europe)
“Innovative processing and sequential extraction and purification hold the key, believes NIZO Food Research.”
Is AI Speciesist? Why Animal Welfare Should Be Part of the LLM Ethics Debate
December 19, 2023 (Green Queen)
“Conversations around artificial intelligence (AI) ethics have lingered around human-centric forms of discrimination like race and gender, but are speciesism and animal welfare also issues the AI sector needs to contend with? The way we treat animals – the same way AI learns to treat animals – makes it feel like they are.”
AI computer vision system measures stress in farmed shrimp
December 18, 2023 (Interesting Engineering)
“For the project, supported by funds from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the AWI scientists worked closely with Oceanloop, a pioneer in shrimp farming, and Sander Holding, a water treatment systems manufacturer.
During a two-year-long collaboration, they were able to monitor and detect the tiny shrimp's growth, population size, mortality, and stress faster than previously and with up to 95 percent accuracy. This was achieved in real-time and under authentic farming conditions, including high stock densities and in turbid water.”
Breathing new life into fight to save the seas with artificial intelligence
December 18, 2023 (Reuters)
““Oceans cover 70% of the surface of the Earth, but we have so little understanding of them. It's really about getting that data and then, once we have it, we can make more impactful decisions,” suggests Christine Furthaller, head of growth at Montreal startup Whale Seeker. This ranges from being able to gather and interpret data on the distribution of mangrove forests or seagrass meadows, to the contribution of whales to ocean carbon.
That’s where AI is proving a powerful tool – and specifically one branch called machine learning. Here algorithms are trained on big sets of data or images to quickly recognise the presence of a whale in a shipping lane, for example, or a fishing vessel in a marine protected area. The tools have become more powerful in recent years, with some of the biggest companies, like Google and IBM, using their software to map coastal blue carbon.”
App revolutionising aquaculture practices wins award
December 16, 2023 (Borneo Bulletin)
“ODE Aquaculture and Agriculture Company Project Team Leader Dr Lim Tiong Hoo said, “AIquatic Tech is a pioneering smart Internet of Things (IoT) system developed to revolutionise aquaculture practices. Focusing on prawn farming, it provides real-time monitoring of pond conditions, enabling farmers to make informed decisions and ensure optimal growth environments. The system employs artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to estimate prawn growth accurately, enhancing efficiency in breeding and harvest cycles. AIquatic app also offers advantages for consumers in the fish market.””
Nature’s playlist
December 16, 2023 (Borneo Bulletin)
“A reedy pipe and a high-pitched trill duet against the backdrop of a low-pitched insect drone. Their symphony is the sound of a forest, and is monitored by scientists to gauge biodiversity. The recording from the forest in Ecuador is part of new research looking at how artificial intelligence (AI) could track animal life in recovering habitats. […] The tool could become increasingly useful given the current push for “biodiversity credits” – a way of monetising the protection of animals in their natural habitat.”
Norway’s AI Integration and Innovative Machinery Salutes a Sustainable Future
December 15, 2023 (Digital Chew)
“Underwater robots are revolutionizing the way tasks are carried out in fish farms. They play critical roles, such as cleaning the pens used to house the fish. The incorporation of AI into these robots allows for seamless and precision-driven operations, enhancing cost-efficiency.
Equally instrumental in the transformation of aquaculture is fixed wireless access technology. FWA provides reliable and high-speed internet in rural and remote aquatic environments. It ensures continuous monitoring, real-time data collection, and swift threat detection, further supporting the industry’s new AI-driven operations.”
Name that whale! How AI aces animal spotting
December 14, 2023 (BBC News)
“To help people feel a closer connection to each whale, Mr Cheesman's research company, HappyWhale, allows users to upload their photos onto its website. HappyWhale's artificial intelligence (AI) software will then quickly trawl through its database of more than 70,000 different whales with the aim of telling you the exact animal that you were looking at.
Happywhale uses all the data it gets from uploaded photos to help it track whale numbers and movements. It is an example of a growing trend - conservation groups using AI to enable members of the public to identify animals or birds. And in return the organisations get a host of crowdsourced data.”
Saving endangered species: New AI method counts manatee clusters in real time
December 13, 2023 (Phys.org)
“Artificial intelligence is used in a wide spectrum of fields, and now, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science have harnessed its powers to help save the beloved manatee. They are among the first to use a deep learning-based crowd-counting approach to automatically count the number of manatees in a designated region, using images captured from CCTV cameras, which are readily available as input.”
Using artificial intelligence to help our furry neighbours
December 13, 2023 (Network Rail)
“Our railway is home to a variety of plant and animals, including the rare and elusive dormice.
The equipment gathered images, videos and audio recordings and the data was stored and analysed on GoogleCloud. We’re now using it to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning patterns to identify dormouse presence remotely. The knowledge we are gaining is already improving the way we manage our land to benefit the different species that live along our railway, including dormice.”
AI-animated robot pets don’t eat pet food or want treats
December 13, 2023 (Petfood Industry)
“Robots have already begun replacing flesh-and-blood fur babies. Synthetic pets help those who couldn’t otherwise have a furry companion. Ultimate Pet Nutrition sponsored Pets for Vets, a nonprofit organization that finds homes for dogs and cats in shelters with U.S. Armed Forces veterans. Not all of those pets were biological. Pets for Vets has provided dozens of robotic dogs or cats for veterans whose circumstances precluded a live pet. As artificial intelligence and robotics advance, the idea of synthetic pets doesn’t seem so far-fetched. For example, computer scientists developed a program called AutoML-Zero, reported Science. This software develops artificial intelligence programs without any human help by using principles of biological evolution.”
Scientists put tiny VR goggles on mice to learn how animals think
December 12, 2023 (The Independent)
“Scientists have built a tiny pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles for mice in an effort to better understand how their brains work.
Using custom-designed lenses and miniature displays, a team from Northwestern University in the US created a compact VR headset called Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (iMRSIV). The VR goggles were able to accurately simulate overhead threats, like birds, in order to assess how the brain reacts when presented with a life-or-death scenario.”
How one IoT company is improving dairy production
December 11, 2023 (Emerging TechBrew)
“SmaXtec, an agtech company that offers livestock monitoring services, rolled out a new AI-based disease-detection capability in October that applies data analysis to determine which cows will develop illnesses like mastitis days before they’d show clinical signs.
For a cow to be brought “online,” it first has to swallow a capsule-like sensor—much like taking a pill. However, unlike a pill, the bolus won’t be digested. It settles into the bottom of a cow’s reticulum, and beams health data to a mobile base station that is connected to AT&T’s network, which in turn transmits it to SmaXtec’s cloud server for analysis.”
My AI is smarter than your AI
December 8, 2023 (MeatingPlace)
“More and more, I'm seeing companies starting to apply the concept to other areas within the alt-protein industry.
Could we program an AI to tool through a database of fungi or bacteria to help determine which microorganisms might create specific specialty ingredients? Could it help us determine the most sustainable way to co-locate plant-based ingredient and product manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions? Could it help us uncover a fifth pillar of alt-proteins? What's the next frontier?”
Cats Can Hide Their Pain—But Not from AI
December 8, 2023 (Scientific American)
“A team of AI researchers and veterinarians has created and tested two machine-learning algorithms that judged whether cats being treated in a veterinary hospital were experiencing pain based on the animals’ facial expressions. These automated systems, described in a recent Scientific Reports paper, were up to 77 percent accurate, suggesting the potential for powerful new veterinary tools.”
Ibaraki looks to AI, exports to achieve sustainability in agriculture, fisheries
December 8, 2023 (Kyodo News)
“At Nakaminato Port in the city of Hitachinaka, a project is underway through which the prefecture is working with a deeptech company to farm mackerel in tanks using remote feeders and AI technology to monitor feeding behavior.”
Mekong Delta farmers using AI for super-intensive shrimp raising
December 7, 2023 (VietnamNet)
“Traditional shrimp raising models like extensive farming, improved extensive farming, or intensive farming mostly result in low outputs and are easily affected by environmental factors. Instead, the cutting-edge model of super-intensive farming is preferred in the Mekong Delta thanks to its closed circular farming inside a greenhouse through two or three phases. It effectively implements state-of-the-art digital technologies like cloud computing and AI to better control environmental factors and diseases to bring back economic efficiency to farmers.”
AI cameras can reduce human-wildlife conflict in India
December 7, 2023 (The Wildlife Society)
“Researchers are deploying remote cameras with artificial intelligence capabilities in India to reduce conflicts between tigers and livestock.
About the size of an extra-large Sharpie pen, the TrailGuard AI camera is placed up to three meters off the ground. When its embedded AI detects an animal it suspects is a tiger, it sends the tiger image to a computer server and via email or Telegram to a park ranger.
The devices are also being put to work elsewhere, in different ways. In parts of Africa, they’re being used primarily to detect poachers rather than wildlife.”
‘Creamy and comforting’: Will Kraft Heinz Not Company's plant-based mac & cheese win vegans over?
December 7, 2023 (Dairy Reporter)
“The accelerated development of artificial intelligence (AI) has meant manufacturers who are able to tap into the new technology can select for the exact type of functionality in plants to deliver better alt cheese formulations. It is being done by the Bel Group and Climax Foods, by Danone and Brightseed, and of course, by Kraft Heinz and the NotCompany (NotCo), who have now put out their third product collaboration to market.”
Artificial intelligence tracks male koala mating calls to guide decisions about habitat and populations
December 4, 2023 (ABC News)
“Artificial intelligence is being used to help scientists track and protect an Australian icon by listening for the guttural sound of male koalas looking for a girlfriend. A trial using smart sensors has started in New South Wales, with the technology built to activate when it picks up the sounds of mating calls.
[…] Mr Lothian said he hoped the devices could be used to track and protect other threatened species, such as large forest owls and gliders.”
ICT and AI can help to combat stock theft in Zimbabwe
December 2, 2023 (The Chronicle)
“Stock theft remains a critical impediment to Zimbabwe’s agricultural landscape, posing a substantial threat to the livelihoods of farmers and the nation’s food security. The traditional methods employed in combating this menace often fall short due to their reactive nature. However, the fusion of ICT and AI presents a proactive and formidable solution.
Leveraging these advanced technologies allows for the implementation of innovative surveillance systems equipped with drones, satellite imagery, and smart sensors. These tools provide real-time monitoring of livestock, enabling rapid identification and tracking of stolen animals across vast landscapes. AI algorithms can analyze patterns, predict potential theft hotspots and generate actionable insights to prevent criminal activities before they occur.”
Remarks of Chairman Rostin Behnam at the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association 16th Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, Texas
December 1, 2023 (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
“Currently we are keenly following developments and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture, including livestock management. AI smart farming tools have the potential to revolutionize livestock management. Recent advances in machine learning algorithms and sensor technology have enabled the automation of this process and the collection of valuable data on livestock health and behavior. Sensors placed on animals help collect data on their movements, behavior, and psychological signals like temperature and heart rate. This data is then analyzed using machine learning algorithms to detect patterns and anomalies that can indicate health issues or changes in behavior.”
Alliance invests in technology to identify meat quality
November 30, 2023 (New Zealand Herald)
“Alliance Group is rolling out artificial intelligence technology designed to identify eating quality in beef and lamb throughout its plant network.
The co-operative says it is partnering with Australian agtech solutions provider MEQ to deploy lamb and beef probes powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence to measure the intramuscular fat (IMF) levels in lamb and marbling percentages in beef.
It said the technology provided a real-time view of the eating quality of the meat produced across Alliance’s plant network. IMF and ageing were believed to be the two largest contributors to the sensory experience when eating quality meat.”
Audio search engine for Australian wildlife could help researchers better understand environmental changes
November 28, 2023 (ABC News)
“Using Google AI and automatic audio recognition, users can upload audio recordings of an animal species, find similar sounds across the database, filter by location and date, and download the results.
Researchers hope the audio search engine will yield important insights into where some animals go after bushfires and other natural disasters, and to better understand the impact of climate change and the spread of invasive species.”
Artificial Intelligence in Livestock Farming Market – Know the Untapped Revenue Growth Opportunities
November 28, 2023 (Digital Journal)
“InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd. announces the release of a market assessment report on “Global Artificial Intelligence in Livestock Farming Market.
[…] With the introduction of improving the health of their livestock and AI technologies in livestock farming, many farmers could increase their overall profitability and closely monitor diseases that can harm the animals. Improvements in feed quality, computer-aided vision algorithms, supply chain optimization, livestock health monitoring, and real-time behaviour monitoring are the application areas covered by AI technology.”
BinSentry receives patent for AI tech, closes funding round
November 27, 2023 (Feed Strategy)
“BinSentry has received a new patent for a method to use artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately determine the volume of animal feed in a bin using a time-of-flight sensor or other similar hardware.
[…] While feed remains the most important and costly aspect of raising animals, the inventory and supply chain management processes at many companies involve manual data capture (such as climbing ladders or hitting bins with rubber mallets to gauge feed levels) and heavy spreadsheet usage. For companies spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on animal feed, BinSentry technology provides line of sight to not only the animal feed data but also to increased profitability.”
Towards sustainability in meat production
November 24, 2023 (European Commission)
“Automation is critically important for sustainability in meat production, where heavy reliance on human labour is a growing challenge. […] However, for many in the sector, advanced robotics and automation systems are inaccessible as they are expensive, lacking flexibility and lack scalability and robustness.
[The] EU-funded RoBUTCHER project […] presents an opportunity for unconventional automation in pork meat processing, particularly in abattoirs. “Instead of following line-based approaches, which are the main option today, it uses robotics and AI to perform complex cutting and manipulation operations on entire unchilled pork carcasses, with awareness of biological variation and deformation,” confirms Mason.”
BETSY introducing artificial intelligence to farmers at Agribition
November 23, 2023 (980 CJME)
“Mokah Shmigelsky is the CEO and co-founder of OneCup AI, a facial recognition system for cattle. “OneCup AI is a computer vision company that uses artificial intelligence to uniquely identify animals within a herd. And then it tracks and monitors all their changes in behaviour and everything that they’re doing,” she explained.
BETSY stands for “bovine expert tracking and surveillance.” […] A number of cameras are set up around the farm where the animals spend a lot of time, like calving pens, water bowls and salt licks. The cameras upload a video feed into the OneCup AI cloud. The cloud identifies each individual animal and can label them with a name or tag identification. BETSY can watch for things like injury, lameness, respiratory disease, dehydration, mating, weight loss or gain and more.”
Catching up with the trend: Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor farm animal welfare
November 21, 2023 (Innovation News Network)
“Picture yourself in a supermarket. You head to the dairy or meat section and see a colour code displaying an ‘animal welfare score’ on every item. This score provides information on animal welfare when this animal produced this product.
Now imagine a farmer who can keep tabs on their animals throughout their lives via electronic devices, receiving real-time updates and notifications on herd welfare and making timely adjustments to their herd management and practices.
[These] are the envisioned goals of the ClearFarm project – create a platform for producers and consumers to monitor animal welfare information in pigs and dairy cows using sensor technology.”
Use SLEAP to Track Sheep — or any Other Animal
November 21, 2023 (Tech Briefs)
“The desire to understand how the brain generates and patterns behavior has driven rapid methodological innovation in tools to quantify natural animal behavior.
One potential solution is Social LEAP Estimates Animal Poses (SLEAP), a machine learning system for multi-animal pose tracking.“
[SLEAP Overview: In a nutshell, SLEAP allows you to train and use deep learning-based models that can automatically track the movements of any body parts of any number or type of animal from recorded videos. This enables precise and quantitative analysis of behavioral data.]
Rats High on LSD Could Help With Developing AI
November 20, 2023 (Inside Edition)
“For seven years, scientists from the University of Lund in Sweden have been testing the effects of psychedelics and amphetamines on the brain activity of rats. The experiments are two-fold. First, to see how drugs that are sometimes used recreationally may help neurological disorders. And the second is to test where consciousness begins, which could be a factor in developing artificial intelligence.”
Enhancing Animal Welfare: How AI is Reshaping Diagnosis and Treatment in Animal Health
November 20, 2023 (Yahoo Finance)
“Leveraging cutting-edge technologies, AI is revolutionizing the diagnosis, treatment, and care of animals, resulting in improved animal welfare, enhanced disease management, and more efficient veterinary practices. AI technologies, including machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and predictive analytics, are being harnessed to address various challenges in animal health.”
Albertsons deploys Afresh’s AI food waste tech across its meat, seafood departments
November 16, 2023 (Grocery Dive)
“When Albertsons first rolled out Afresh’s solution in 2022, the grocer tapped the AI technology to offer guidance on how much of a produce item to order based on a variety of factors, including store-level customer demand, historical sales and perishability.
Earlier this year, Afresh said it expanded its solution beyond retailers’ produce operations, allowing grocers to start using its food waste reduction technology in their meat, seafood, deli, and foodservice sections.”
New tool to help AI track animals could boost biology research
November 14, 2023 (Imperial College London)
“Biologists often study large numbers of animals to collect data on collective and individual behaviour. New machine learning tools promise to help scientists process the huge amount of data this work generates more quickly while lessening workload.
Now, a new tool called replicAnt simplifies and streamlines the way the training images for these machine learning tools are created, making it quicker and easier to record observations about lots of animals at once, starting with insects.”
The AI Bias That’s Often Overlooked: Speciesism
November 9, 2023 (Sentient Media)
“The computer models that teach different kinds of AI to provide images and chatbot replies are not neutral, it turns out. In fact, the researchers found that these models either reinforce existing biases about farm animals, or conceal the connection to factory farming altogether. Either way, the result is the same — we humans are passing down our prejudices to these different AI systems, who in turn spread these biases to our collective unconsciousness like a virus.”
Heura Uses ToolsGroup for Digital Supply Chain Transformation to Support Global Expansion
November 9, 2023 (Quality Assurance Mag)
“ToolsGroup, a provider of retail and supply chain planning and optimization software, announced it has been selected by Heura, a producer of next-generation plant-based meat, to help the company achieve the planning speed and accuracy necessary to transform its supply operations and meet the growing demands of its global expansion.”
This Norwegian AI Powered Startup Has Big Plans For The Meat Industry
November 9, 2023 (Forbes)
“The company [Völur] developed an AI technology able to analyze supply and demand forecast, animal characteristics, best cutting patterns, inventory levels and prices, so that daily production is fully optimized to produce what is needed.
[…] Making sure that that 24% of meat now wasted can re-enter the food supply chain could ultimately lead meat producers to meet the current demand with fewer animals, potentially paving the way for more acceptance for stringent animal welfare regulations.
[…] But on the flip side, helping the industry maximize utilization could potentially lead to the continued profiting and eventually meeting higher demand.”
‘Bear-dar’ uses AI to protect communities and polar bears
November 7, 2023 (The Weather Network)
“Polar Bears International (PBI) is in its final year of instructing an AI radar system, dubbed Bear-dar, to detect bears and alert communities around the clock. PBI is trying to determine if it can be trained to recognize polar bears and warn residents of nearby animals, giving them time to respond so both remain safe from harm.”
PetSmart Charities of Canada and Deutsch LA support animal welfare organizations with AI Tool "Rescue Writer" ahead of National Adoption Week
November 6, 2023 (Newswire)
“With approximately 94,000 adoptable pets waiting in shelters, many animal welfare organizations across Canada, already stretched thin, don't always have the time or capacity to create bios that will inspire potential pet parents to adopt.
That's why PetSmart Charities of Canada partnered with Deutsch LA, an award-winning creative agency, to create Rescue Writer™, a free artificial intelligence (AI) tool that will help shelter staff and volunteers write attention-grabbing, heartwarming and editable bios, in an effort to increase pets' chances of finding loving homes.”
‘AI can teach us a lot’: scientists say cats’ expressions richer than imagined and aim to translate them
November 4, 2023 (The Guardian)
“If an unexpected meow, peculiar pose, or unusual twitch of the whiskers leaves you puzzling over what your cat is trying to tell you, artificial intelligence may soon be able to translate.
Scientists are turning to new technology to unpick the meanings behind the vocal and physical cues of a host of animals.”
These IBM Researchers Want To Test AI, Not Lab Animals
November 2, 2023 (Sentient Media)
“Researchers from IBM are part of a team to develop a new artificial intelligence model for testing novel drugs and other substances rather than use living animals.”
Enhance! HORNK! Artificial intelligence can now ID individual geese
November 2, 2023 (WFDD)
“It took a couple of years, but, writing in the Journal of Ornithology, the team reports that their goose recognition software is now about 97% accurate. […] This is not the first facial recognition program for animals. In recent years, researchers have used it on everything from lemurs to bears.
[…] Ingram has developed SealNet, an AI tool that can tell harbor seals apart. Before SealNet she says, the only way to identify individual seals was by tagging them, but that was difficult. The best way to do it was to try and shoot them with tracking darts.”
We asked artificial intelligence (AI) whether it could end animal testing for good – here’s what it said
November 1, 2023 (Vegan Food and Living)
“When we’re talking about AI and animal testing we’re looking at digital twin technology, which provides electronic copies of real-world systems for testing and generative AI such as the well-known ChatGPT […]
Generative AI is built by feeding it large amounts of data and training it to produce outputs synthesised from that data in response to prompts. Using digital twins, instead of testing on living animals or people, initial trials can be run on simulations.”
ISI develops AI tech to outsmart and shoo away straying animals
November 1, 2023 (Times of India)
“The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is collaborating with the state forest department to work on an AI-enabled system to send out alerts and prevent wild animals which […] are in danger of straying into human habitations. The idea is to help reduce human-animal conflicts in order to prevent loss of life – both human and animal.”
Binary for Biodiversity: AI’s Green Revolution
October 31, 2023 (Medium)
“AI is a linchpin in wildlife conservation endeavors, automating the analysis of datasets collected through remote sensors, camera traps, and satellite imagery. […] AI is [also] revolutionizing agriculture by facilitating data-driven decisions in crop management, waste reduction, and efficiency enhancement.”
The Future of Technology in Animal Rescue
October 30, 2023 (Tech Bullion)
“In the age of rapidly advancing technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making significant strides in various domains, including animal rescue. Vladimir Galabov, an advocate for pet charities and dog shelters, emphasizes the importance of harnessing AI to improve the welfare of our furry companions. This article explores the future of technology in animal rescue with a focus on AI, and how it can revolutionize the way we care for and protect animals.”
How AI can help to save endangered species
October 27, 2023 (Nature)
“Scientists are using artificial intelligence to fight biodiversity loss by analysing vast amounts of data, monitoring ecosystems and spotting trends over time.”
Veterinary industry trends to watch in 2024 (Part 2)
October 27, 2023 (DVM 360)
“AI presents numerous potential applications within veterinary clinic workflow. From prescreening and triage to developing treatment plans and post-visit patient follow-ups, the technology promises to streamline processes and reduce the administrative burden on practitioners.”
Using AI to Track Animal Behavior
October 25, 2023 (Tech Briefs)
“A Salk Institute team has created GlowTrack, a non-invasive movement tracking method that uses fluorescent dye markers to train AI.”