Computer scientists at the University of Cambridge have created a way to minimise sheep's suffering using artificial intelligence (AI). The researchers built machine learning algorithms based on the Sheep Pain Facial Expression Scale (SPFES)-- a system that gauges the mammal's pain depending on its facial movements. The algorithm devised at Cambridge is an ovine version of earlier projects to assess human emotions with computer vision. "There's been much more study over the years with people," the study's lead researcher Peter Robinson said. "But a lot of the earlier work on the faces of animals was actually done by Darwin, who argued that all humans and many animals show emotion through remarkably similar behaviours, so we thought there would likely be crossover between animals and our work in human faces."