Forget about an AI stealing your job, even pigs can be trained to use computers

Cute, intelligent and delicious with a tendency for totalitarianism, pigs have a lot going for them. But they're also capable of grasping video games – of a sort. Writing in the Frontiers in Psychology journal, US researchers explained how they were able to train two Panepinto micro pigs and two Yorkshire pigs to "manipulate a …

[adam 40]

The National Cyber Crime Unit

Yes, that's where they were first observed...

[chivo243]

Heck, that's pretty much sysadmin territory already.

Shaddup already... I thought we weren't supposed to let this get out!

[CzechNeck]

Done before?

Am I the only one who remembers almost identical research being reported on back in the mid-90s?

[John Miles]

Re: Done before?

Yes I remember seeing something similar from back then - used to come to mind when watching people struggle with using computer mice for first time. (edit - as highlighted just how intelligent pigs are)

[Synkronicity]

Re: Done before?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dFwx95ufEk

Same name, too.

[Jay 2]

Re: Done before?

You are not. I thought exactly the same thing when reading the story on the BBC.

[MarkSitkowski]

Re: Done before?

It's been done more than once. After they got bored with the games, they worked on a project with me...

[JacobZ]

Three-legged pigs...

...because you don't eat a pig like that all at once.

You have to know the joke...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pigs have elevated privileges...

...because they belong to the suid family.

[vonBureck]

Re: Pigs have elevated privileges...

You owe me a new keyboard, have an upvote for that splendid punnage.

[Neil Barnes]

Hamlet and Omelet were terminated from the experiment because they had grown too large

I scent the delightful odour of bacon. Mmmm.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Hamlet and Omelet were terminated from the experiment because they had grown too large

Yes, just plain terminated I suspect. Hamlet and Omelet as names? Is that a Freudian slip on the part of the psychologists?

[Bill Gray]

Re: Hamlet and Omelet were terminated from the experiment because they had grown too large

When I were a lad, my father named our first two pigs Porkchop and Hambone, to make sure the kids remembered they (the pigs) were dinner, not pets. Later pigs got similar names.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Hamlet and Omelet were terminated from the experiment because they had grown too large

If pigs are that intelligent, I may never be able to eat one again. At least not until "Something off the shoulder perhaps?" suggested the animal, "braised in a white wine sauce?"

(With thanks to Douglas Adams)

[Kane]

Re: Hamlet and Omelet were terminated from the experiment because they had grown too large

I think I'll just have a green salad

[AMBxx]

Long sighted

Now we need to give the pig glasses.

[Mike 137]

"they had grown too large to stand long enough"

Questionable breed? I wonder how wild boar would have "stood up" to the test - they might even be smarter as well.

[Blackjack]

Re: "they had grown too large to stand long enough"

Even worse, not only they are bigger, they are stronger.

[chivo243]

Re: "they had grown too large to stand long enough"

I doubt there is a ruggedized joy stick that could stand up to a feral boar... nasty business, nasty...

[Cynic_999]

Results not unexpected

After playing video games over a long period, the pigs became fat and useless. Something that parents of teenagers have also noticed.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Results not unexpected

"Fat" and "useless" are not words to put in the same sentence when describing pigs. Teenagers, yes. Pigs, no.

[Blackjack]

Re: Results not unexpected

Fat and tasty.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Now, if you'll excuse me, I know what I'd like for lunch."

That's one way to ensure they don't take your work on the monthly gaming column

[Fruit and Nutcase]

There'll be Pigs flying drones next

They do that already?

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: There'll be Pigs flying drones next

Pigeons got there first. During WW2 they were trained to steer glide bombs by pecking at a picture of the target. If the target was off centre on the screen the pigeon pecks off centre. Simple logic, even in 1940, to correct the aim.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: There'll be Pigs flying drones next

But nobody told the pigeons why.

[Blackjack]

Are pigs hard to train or not?

I have read conflicting articles about it.

For example the main reason pigs were replaced by dogs when it comes to hunting truffles is that dogs won't eat them.

[fidodogbreath]

Re: Are pigs hard to train or not?

the main reason pigs were replaced by dogs when it comes to hunting truffles is that dogs won't eat them.

Wait...there's something dogs won't eat?

[Blackjack]

Re: Are pigs hard to train or not?

Domestic dogs tend to get picky about food if you spoil them.

[Zimmer]

..and pigs might fly..

Be careful with the joystick training. Too much of it, with a piggery next to an airfield, before you know it - bacon WILL go up....

========> the flying jacket with the goggles in the top pocket, please..

[chivo243]

Re: ..and pigs might fly..

Would that be the Pink Floyd express?

[steelpillow]

micro management

So micro pigs are better at working micro computers. Who'd 'a thunk it.

[spold]

Not surprising

Pigs and Pong have always gone together

[cornetman]

> Cute, intelligent and delicious with a tendency for totalitarianism, pigs have a lot going for them.

God, that's great and made me titter.

[yetanotheraoc]

Upcoming job openings

Can they be trained to run a domain registry?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Upcoming job openings

I suspect they might do a good job of setting a once and for all final policy for .eu

[Anonymous Coward]

Hamlet and Omelet

Weren't sent back to the pig farm, they were put downstairs in the troll farm.

Fat and happy, they haunt us with Anonymous Coward posts.

[Chris G]

Panepinto

I think you might find the above is a form of humane restraint for research animals, which in this case were micro pigs who were involved with research into pig mentation.

[William Higinbotham]

Rethinking Sus Scrofa Domesticus

Author illustrates a shifting moral status view of human–pig relationships. Next, discusses personhood attributions through biological, philosophical, and legal frameworks; review benefits and risks of xenotransplantation; reflect on the moral status of non-human animals; and offer concluding thoughts.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7222736/

[Danny 2]

Re: Rethinking Sus Scrofa Domesticus

I'd happily donate a kidney to a pig, if I knew you lot wouldn't eat it.

[In the gutter, but looking at the stars]

Dog Food Pellets

Which sort?

Just a guy who has to wrangle a lot of users on a limited budget.

[Aseries]

Monkeys can do more than type Shakespeare

Many years ago some Univac engineers trained a chimp to operate a Univac 1004. The operation consisted of pressing four buttons in the correct sequence.

[Mike 16]

Primates and swine, not just operation

(Non-human) Primates programming:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180109065503/http://www.newtechusa.com/PPI/main.asp

But the managerial tasks may fall to boars (you noticed, right?) if

https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/14/wild_boar_destroys_20k_euro_cocaine_stash/

is any guide to some boarish tendencies.