Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to introduce artificial intelligence in pig husbandry

Beijing. February 20. Silkroadnews - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has decided to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help China boost its pig-husbandry industry, which has long been plagued with poor efficiency and high labor costs, China Daily reports.
Along with the cattle farming companies Sichuan Tequ Group and Dekon Group, the giant of e-commerce has invested millions of yuan to set AI system that can keep a record of the behavior and health of each single pig, including their breed, age in days, diet, weight and movement.
The system is able to help each sow to give birth to three more piglets per year and reduce the mortality by about 3%, as confirmed by preliminary experiments.
The technologies offered by Alibaba can automatically record the number of births and report whether the sow can give a natural birth or not. For example, AI can find and save a piglet, analyzing its screams and determining their cause.
The AI program for pig husbandry is only one part of Alibaba’s ET Brain Plan, which is already being applied in such areas as civil aviation, transportation, environment and medical care.
The company also plans to introduce AI in crop farming to raise its efficiency and labor intensity.