Why scientists are teaching AI to think like a dog

Dogs may be our best friends, but they're also our hard-working colleagues -- tasked with everything from guarding our homes to guiding visually impaired people to sniffing out bombs. And now researchers have enlisted the help of an Alaskan Malamute named Kelp to develop an artificial intelligence system that thinks just like a dog, in hopes of creating canine-like robots. To build a database of dog behavior, a team of scientists led by Kiana Ehsani, a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, attached sensors to Kelp's paws, torso, and tail to capture her movements for a couple of hours a day while eating, playing fetch, and walking around in various indoor and outdoor environments. A camera affixed to Kelp's head recorded what she saw as she went about her everyday activities. Over the course of several weeks, the researchers amassed more than 24,000 video frames -- all associated with particular body movements.