Buck-Buck-Buck A team of researchers in Japan claims to have figured out a way to translate the clucking of chickens with the use of artificial intelligence. As detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed preprint, the team led by University of Tokyo professor Adrian David Cheok — who has previously studied sex robots — came up with a “system capable of interpreting various emotional states in chickens, including hunger, fear, anger, contentment, excitement, and distress” by using “cutting-edge AI technique we call Deep Emotional Analysis Learning.” They say the technique is “rooted in complex mathematical algorithms” and can even be used to adapt to the ever-changing vocal patterns of chickens, meaning that it only gets better at deciphering “chicken vocalizations” over time. At least that’s the theory — and, no, you’re not alone at this point in having some doubts about the chicken translating AI’s ability to bring us closer to poultry and their many needs. Egging On To test out their new system, the team recorded and analyzed samples from 80 chickens. They then fed these samples to an algorithm to relate these vocal patterns to various “emotional states” in the birds. By teaming up with “a team of eight animal psychologists and veterinary surgeons,” the researchers say they were able to pinpoint a given chicken’s mental state with a surprisingly high accuracy. “The results of our experiments demonstrate the potential of using AI and machine learning techniques to recognize emotional states in chickens based on their sound signals,” the paper reads….Scientists Say New AI Can Translate What Chickens Are Saying