Researchers Develop an AI Trained on Dog Behavior

One of the fundamental components of machine learning, and artificial intelligence in general, is the training process. The whole point of the technology is to allow a computer to learn on its own, but that still requires data for it to learn from. That data is based on what the AI is intended for, and now researchers from the University of Washington have created an AI that’s trained to behave like a dog.

If you own a dog, you’re already well aware of how smart they can be. The researchers wanted to replicate that innate intelligence in order to develop an AI that could navigate an environment like a dog would. To gather the necessary training data, they strapped Arduino-connected sensors and a GoPro camera onto an actual dog—who is undoubtedly a very good boy.

The sensors are synced with the GoPro video to provide additional data about how the dog is navigating the environment. The AI was then trained on that data, and it was able to learn to predict what the dog’s path would be through a given environment. That’s important, because predicting the actual dog’s path corresponds with the AI dog knowing which path it itself should take. There isn’t any reason the research needs to be limited to dogs, but overall the research provides a new method for teaching an AI to navigate in a natural way.