How AI combined with imaging technology can transform the poultry industry, reducing global food waste
Hailing from Munich, Germany, the Orbem AI team has a clear goal: “Our mission is to transform food systems towards a sustainable and animal-friendly future.” How, you ask? By classifying eggs.
This may sound simple, but in fact, it’s much more complex than you might think. Combining accelerated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with deep learning, Orbem’s technology lies at the interface of non-invasive sensor technology with cutting-edge AI. It would allow hatcheries to analyze eggs and classify them by sex without damaging and destroying them. Given that 9 billion eggs are wasted in fertilization within today’s poultry industry and 7 billion newborn male chicks are unethically killed, this tech is vital. It could drastically reduce these numbers, improving profit in the poultry industry while also protecting animals at the same time.
Learn more about Orbem AI:
What global issue is Orbem working to solve, and how?
Our purpose is to shed light on the world's toughest challenges by unleashing AI-powered imaging for everything and everyone. In poultry, this purpose translates into preventing the waste of over 9 billion perfectly edible infertile eggs – supplying them as a food source – and stopping the unnecessary killing of 7 billion newborn male chicks; repurposing them for other supply streams, such as vaccine creation.
Our AI enables two key technological advantages. First, it makes sense of incomplete measurements, allowing us to perform MRI scans at a speed that was previously unattainable. Second, it automatically classifies the data (fertile/infertile or male/female), allowing for a completely autonomous MRI examination. Acquiring data at an extremely fast rate and classifying the data with high accuracy is only a task AI can do, as we as humans are incapable of analyzing thousands of MRI volumes per hour.
What made you want to enter the AI XPRIZE?
The landing page of the AI XPRIZE reads, "AI to solve global issues". This immediately resonated with our core purpose and the technology we are developing, so we decided to enter as a wildcard team in the very last stage. Being recognized as one of the top 10 teams worldwide in developing AI technology for good is very humbling and motivating. The competition has energized us to continue imagining new frontiers and challenging the status quo – every single day.
What's been your team's biggest challenge so far?
Rethinking MRI is a moonshot. While an extremely powerful imaging technology, most people tend to think of MRI as slow, expensive, and complicated and can't imagine it outside the hospital. We are energizing MRI scanners with AI technology to transform MRI from slow, expensive, and complicated to fast, cheap, and simple, and we’ve dared to take MRI out of the hospital, aiming to unleash AI-powered imaging for everything and everyone.
Why are your team’s efforts important now, and how do you see them scaling up in the future?
The world is facing tremendous challenges: climate change, pandemics, & a growing population that needs to be fed, to give a few examples. Our work is important because we shed light on these challenges by providing access to otherwise unattainable sources of information. In poultry, by revealing what's hidden and classifying eggs, we can introduce billions of currently wasted eggs into the food market to sustainably feed the world, and we can prevent the killing of billions of newborn males by using them for alternative supply streams. In the future, there will be an increased demand for transparent and sustainable value chains, and we hope to contribute to this future with our patented, pioneering work.
What team accomplishment are you most proud of?
The team itself! We put together an A+ team, joining all of the required expertise across many technical fields to build a unique product.