Artificial intelligence (AI) is finding applications in a number of different fields. Algorithms are helping to save lives in the fields of medical research and diagnosis. AI is powering the new generation of robots; it’s being leveraged in banking and high finance; and, of course, there’s the potential for truly immersive video games.
If those are some of its more glamorous uses, an AI revolution currently taking place in China resides at the opposite end of the spectrum. ET Brain, the cloud computing service from Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is being deployed in the world of pig farming. It might not be a sexy use of AI, but for those involved in the industry – and the pork market is huge in China – it’s every bit as potentially life-changing as other more widely reported applications.
China rears half the entire global market for pigs
According to a report in The Verge, around 700 million pigs, or half the pigs on the planet, are reared in China. It’s the biggest pork market in the world, and most of the animals are raised on huge dedicated pig farms. Most of these have already been modernised to a certain extent but remain inefficient, especially when dealing with pigs in such vast numbers.
"If you have 10 million pigs to raise, you can barely count how many piglets were born on a daily basis when the due date comes," Tequ Chief Information Officer Zhang Haifeng told the BBC.
The new technology is initially being trialled in Sichuan Province in conjunction with local feed provider Sichuan Tequ and farming group Dekon. China's Synced Review news site said that the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars have been committed to the project.
Most farms already use some technology in their management of pig populations. RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags are routinely used to track pigs’ movements around farms, for example. These tags are reliable, but they are also expensive and time-intensive to manage. The new system will use overhead cameras and visual recognition software to scan ID numbers tattooed on the pigs.
AI system will monitor the health of individual pigs
The system will also keep profiles of each animal, including details of their weight, age, food intake and exercise, amongst other data. The AI tech will monitor sounds for coughs that could indicate illness and squeals that could determine if piglets are at danger of being suffocated beneath their mothers. Infrared heat monitors can also provide an early warning for potential disease outbreaks.
Dr Georgina Crayford from the UK’s National Pig Association told the BBC that new innovations were always of interest but that she didn’t see human management and labour being completely outsourced to machines.
"There are some concerns in the British pig industry about our access to sufficient labour, because we are quite reliant on migrants both on farms and in slaughter houses," she said.
"So, ways in which production can become more automated are obviously of interest. But I don't think we'll ever see a time when stockmen aren't needed on farms for good husbandry and the welfare of the pigs.
