According to Reuters, Baidu - the owner of China's largest search engine - has filed a patent with the National Intellectual Property Administration of China proposing a system to convert animal speech to human language.
The tech giant filed for a patenting in December 2024, but it has only been recently published by the National Intellectual Property Administration of China.
Baidu's AI system will collect in-depth animal data, including voice, behavior, body language and other biological signs, which will be processed before conducting AI analysis to recognize the emotional state of the animal. This emotional state will then be translated into human language.
Baidu said the system could allow for "deeper emotional exchange and better understanding between animals and humans, improving the accuracy and efficiency of communication between species."
However, they do not dare to confirm when patents will become products, all of which are new at the research stage.
Baidu is one of the first major Chinese companies to invest heavily in AI after OpenAI's ChatGPT launch in 2022.
Last month, the company released its latest AI model, Ernie 4.5 Turbo, and claimed it was par for industry-leading models in some standard tests. However, Ernie's chatbot has faced fierce competition from its opponents.
In the world, there are many other units and companies that have similar ideas like Baidu, with the desire to learn what animals want to convey.
For example, international researchers at the CETI project have used statistical analysis and AI since 2020 to learn how funeral fish communicate.
Meanwhile, the Earth Species project, a nonprofit founded in 2017 with funding from LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, is also trying to use AI to decode animal communication.
