AI Algorithm Decodes Pig Sounds to Improve Animal Welfare on Farms

Farmers could use AI to keep pigs happy, researchers say

European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioral biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study. The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway, and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation, and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. While many farmers already have a good understanding of the well-being of their animals by watching them in the pig pen, existing tools mostly measure their physical condition, said Mandel-Briefer.

AI Decodes Oinks and Grunts to Keep Pigs Happy

VIPPEROD, Denmark (Reuters) - European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioural biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study. The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. While many farmers already have a good understanding of the well-being of their animals by watching them in the pig pen, existing tools mostly measure their physical condition, said Mandel-Briefer. "Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," she said. The algorithm demonstrated that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range or organic farms with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs. The researchers believe that this method, once fully developed, could also be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices. "Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Mandel-Briefer said. Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions, while long grunts often signal discomfort, such as when pigs push each other by the trough. High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed, for instance, when they are in pain, fight, or are separated from each other. The scientists used these findings to create an algorithm that employs AI. "Artificial intelligence really helps us to both process the huge amount of sounds that we get, but also to classify them automatically," Mandel-Briefer said. (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Editing by William Maclean)

AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy in Danish study

European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioral biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study. The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. While many farmers already have a good understanding of the well-being of their animals by watching them in the pig pen, existing tools mostly measure their physical condition, said Mandel-Briefer. "Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," she said. The algorithm demonstrated that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range or organic farms with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs. The researchers believe that this method, once fully developed, could also be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices. "Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Mandel-Briefer said. Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions, while long grunts often signal discomfort, such as when pigs push each other by the trough. High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed, for instance, when they are in pain, fight, or are separated from each other. The scientists used these findings to create an algorithm that employs AI. "Artificial intelligence really helps us to both process the huge amount of sounds that we get, but also to classify them automatically," Mandel-Briefer said.

AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy

VIPPEROD, Denmark (Reuters) - European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioural biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study. The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. While many farmers already have a good understanding of the well-being of their animals by watching them in the pig pen, existing tools mostly measure their physical condition, said Mandel-Briefer. "Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," she said. The algorithm demonstrated that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range or organic farms with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs. The researchers believe that this method, once fully developed, could also be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices. "Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Mandel-Briefer said. Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions, while long grunts often signal discomfort, such as when pigs push each other by the trough. High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed, for instance, when they are in pain, fight, or are separated from each other. The scientists used these findings to create an algorithm that employs AI. "Artificial intelligence really helps us to both process the huge amount of sounds that we get, but also to classify them automatically," Mandel-Briefer said. (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Editing by William Maclean)

AI decodes oinks and grunts to keep pigs happy

VIPPEROD, Denmark, Oct 24 (Reuters) - European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. The algorithm could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioural biologist at University of Copenhagen who is co-leading the study. Advertisement · Scroll to continue The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. While many farmers already have a good understanding of the well-being of their animals by watching them in the pig pen, existing tools mostly measure their physical condition, said Mandel-Briefer. Advertisement · Scroll to continue "Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," she said. The algorithm demonstrated that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range or organic farms with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs. The researchers believe that this method, once fully developed, could also be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices. "Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Mandel-Briefer said. Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions, while long grunts often signal discomfort, such as when pigs push each other by the trough. High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed, for instance, when they are in pain, fight, or are separated from each other. The scientists used these findings to create an algorithm that employs AI. "Artificial intelligence really helps us to both process the huge amount of sounds that we get, but also to classify them automatically," Mandel-Briefer said. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Editing by William Maclean Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen Thomson Reuters Based in Copenhagen, Jacob oversees reporting from Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. He specializes in security and geopolitics in the Arctic and Baltic Sea regions, as well as large corporates such as obesity drug maker Novo Nordisk, brewer Carlsberg and shipping group Maersk. Before moving to Copenhagen in 2016, Jacob spent seven years in Moscow covering Russia's oil and gas industry for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, followed by four years in Singapore covering energy markets for WSJ and Reuters.

Scientists say they can use AI to understand what pigs are saying

While it's not quite Doctor Doolittle, a new algorithm is capable of decoding pig sounds and could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions, researchers say. Communication with pigs may soon be possible as scientists say they have developed an AI tool that can interpret what the animals are saying. While it's not quite Doctor Doolittle, the algorithm is capable of decoding pig sounds and could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions, researchers say. It's hoped the tool can help improve animal welfare. The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds from different scenarios to build the algorithm. Scenarios include play, isolation and competition for food, and they found that that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions. "Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," says study co-leader Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioural biologist at University of Copenhagen. The study found that pigs kept in outdoor, free-range or organic farms, with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt, produced fewer stress calls than conventionally raised pigs. Researchers think this method could one day be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices. Read more from Sky News: King given pig carcass in Samoa Scurvy 'is re-emerging' due to cost of living crisis "Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Ms Mandel-Briefer said. So what do the sounds mean? Let's have a look at some of the study's findings. * Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions * Long grunts often signal discomfort * High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed

Europe

How AI is helping decode the oinks and grunts of pigs European scientists have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds, aiming to create a tool that can help farmers improve animal welfare. It could potentially alert farmers to negative emotions in pigs, thereby improving their well-being, according to Elodie Mandel-Briefer, a behavioral biologist at University of Copenhagen. Kristy Kilburn has more.

Pigs can't fly but they might be able to talk thanks to AI translators

Who needs Charlotte and her web when AI can tell you how Wilbur really feels Pigs are noisy, but AI may be able to interpret their sounds and tell us what they are feeling based on them. A group of scientists has developed an AI algorithm that can decode pigs' emotions based on their grunts, squeals, and snuffles. The research aims to help farmers understand the emotional and physical health as well as well-being of their animals. Learning that pigs are happy, sad, stressed, or something else can help those raising them work out any potential issues affecting the animals and maintain them in better conditions. The researchers used thousands of recordings of pigs in all kinds of situations during their lives, right up until they went to the slaughterhouse in some cases. Every squeal and grunt was tagged and labeled depending on whether the pig was experiencing a positive or negative experience. Soon, the AI could determine the emotions that evoked different sounds. For instance, high-pitched squeals often mean fear or stress, while short grunts mean the pig is content. There's a lot of high-tech equipment used to monitor the physical health of animals on modern farms. Adding their psychological fitness to the list could be a real boon for farmers. Happy pigs are healthy, and stressed pigs might be a sign of bigger problems. Happier pigs aren't just good for ethical reasons; they also tend to be more valuable for meat. The researchers believe that with enough data, this AI could eventually be adapted to understand the emotions of other animals, too. There are already efforts in that arena. The new Shazam Band leverages AI to translate for animals. The collar around your dog or cat (or any animal) uses sensors to monitor how the animal responds to what you say to it and their movements. The AI interprets that into human language and broadcasts from speakers in the collar. Over time, it learns your pet's communication skills and becomes more accurate. Putting collars like that around the millions of pigs raised on farms is not likely to be practical. Still, the AI algorithm could be deployed in other useful ways. The researchers are looking to create an app that employs the algorithm that farmers can use to check up on temperature or watch for wild animals. Then, all that's needed is to connect the device to a loom and thread to let the pig make its own tapestry to proclaim how great it is, no spider necessary.