AI-powered chilli spray could deter bears without injuring them

AI-controlled machines equipped with chilli pepper spray could reduce confrontations between bears and people. But the animals may learn to avoid these machines and simply head to homes and rubbish dumps without them.

Incidents between people and Tibetan brown bears (Ursus arctos pruinosus), also known as Tibetan blue bears, on the Tibetan Plateau are escalating, perhaps at least partly due to climate change affecting the animals’ usual territory. This could result in bears killing livestock and damaging property, or even…