Alibaba backs pig-raising with AI technologies

At the Computing Conference 2018: Shanghai Summit on June 7, Alibaba Cloud introduced its ET Agricultural Brain that aims to lower pigs' death rate by 3% and allow each sow to raise three more piglets each year. According to its President, Simon Hu, ET Agricultural Brain can monitor each pig's daily activity, growth indicators and other health indexes using AI technologies such as visual recognition, voice recognition, and real-time environmental parameter monitoring. Hu said that active pigs will become favored over heavier ones: a pig that runs 200 km over the course of its life will be sold over a 100 kg one. Sharing his company's experiences using ET Agricultural Brain at the conference, Sichuan-based pig farming enterprise Tequ Group's Chairman Wang Degen said that Alibaba Cloud's technology and ecosystem integrates cutting edge interactive automation with hog farming. Other early adopters include the Shaanxi-based agricultural company Haisheng Group, which according to Alibaba Cloud's estimation, could save around USD 3.1M in annual operating costs by using the technology. ET Agricultural Brain has also been successfully used in the smart-city, transportation, industrial, and aviation sectors.