An animal society headquartered in Utah is harnessing the power of AI to help cats find their forever homes.
Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that has been rescuing animals since 1993. In a unique event, the society has turned to artificial intelligence to help cats across the country get adopted.
Cats at Best Friends centers in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Houston, Northwest Arkansas and Kanab, Utah, have putting their tech skills to the test.
"Over the past month, these cats have been walking, sitting and laying on computer keyboards that have been capturing keystrokes that, through an AI program, have been turned into cat-generated art," Erin O'Connor from Best Friends Animal Society told Newsweek.
Viewable in an online gallery where visitors can digitally meet the cat artists and learn more about them, all the artists are up for adoption.
"All adopters of cats who created AI art will be able to download their new cat's masterpiece as well as a certificate of 'Pawthenticity,'" O'Connor said.
Each artwork was named by the cat, including titles like "'54zr4y7gfJub verr4" and "dx,krvff.]]"
Along with the works, Best Friends Animal Society included a written interpretation of the work created by ChatGPT, another AI technology.
One of these interpretations that read "krvff" could be seen as an onomatopoeic representation of the cat's purring or contented sounds. It suggests that the cat is in a state of satisfaction, comfort or happiness.
According to Best Friends' national data analysis, in 2022, 55 percent of the animals killed in shelters were cats, making them the most vulnerable population in shelters.
These numbers peak during what is known as kitten season, or the summer months. The data also shows that between April and October last year, cat intake was 66 percent higher compared to the year's colder months.
"Cats have a natural curiosity that makes them drawn to keyboards which we think will make them natural AI artists," Samantha Bell, cat expert, Best Friends Animal Society, told Newsweek.
AI image generation software requires a text prompt from a user, telling the program what to do. For example, a user may type "/imagine cats surfing pink clouds" and the program would begin generating the image.
Previous examples of AI-generated artwork include one artist's reimagination of what world leaders would look like as Wes Anderson characters, and a fun thread from Twitter of U.S. presidents with mullets.
By letting the cats walk all over the keyboard, the team at Best Friends let them create their own "prompts" and produce the artwork.
"Being able to show off their unique personalities through art will hopefully help these creative cats find homes," Bell added. "Now more than ever, our shelters are seeing higher animal populations and exhibiting the clever ways cats can engage with technology is a creative way to help them get adopted."
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ... Read more
