JD Finance, the financial technology arm of China's e-commerce tycoon¹ JD.com, unveiled the upgrade of its brand last Tuesday with JD Digits², and a move to make inroads into the agricultural and husbandry industry via AI technology.

上周二，中国电商巨头京东旗下的子公司京东金融，宣布了品牌升级为京东数字科技，并通过人工智能技术进军农业和畜牧业。

Speaking about the rationale to focus on this specific area, Cao Peng, vice³ president and general manager of JD Digits, said that while many sectors⁴ in China have great value and opportunities, the pig-breeding industry is one of a few industries that have the willingness to change its status quo.

在谈到关注这一特定领域的理由时，京东数字科技副总裁兼总经理曹鹏表示，尽管中国许多行业都有巨大的价值和机遇，但养猪业是少数几个愿意改变现状的行业之一。

China possesses approximately half of the world's supply of pigs. However, the cost is about two times as high as its American counterpart due to lack of efficiency, said Li Defa, professor of Animal Science and Technology College of China Agriculture University.

中国的生猪供应量约占世界生猪供应量的一半。不过，中国农业大学动物科技学院教授李德发称，由于缺乏效率，这一成本大约是美国同类产品的两倍。

The "pig face recognition" algorithm developed by JD Digits can correlate the abnormal behaviors of pigs with its growth profile, immune information and real-time physical conditions so that the breeder could be notified in the first place.

由京东数字科技开发的“猪脸识别”算法，可以将猪的异常行为与猪的生长状况、免疫信息和实时生理状况联系起来，从而使育种者能够在第一时间得到通知。

京东宣布通过人工智能强势进军养猪业

In addition, inspection⁵ robots, IoT and other technologies are also applied⁶ in areas such as environmental control, disease recognition, waste processing, and ingredients allocation for feed.

此外，检测机器人、物联网和其他技术也被应用于环境控制、疾病识别、废物处理和饲料配料分配等领域。

According to JD Digits, the solution has been introduced to the pig-breeding industry, where it can decrease costs by more than 30 percent, reducing fodder⁷ by up to 10 percent and shortening the slaughter⁸ time to around five to eight days.

据京东数字科技介绍，该解决方案已被引入养猪业，可降低成本30%以上，减少饲料多达10%，并将屠宰时间缩短至5至8天左右。

If the entire Chinese pig-breeding industry applies it, the solution could lower costs by up to 50 billion yuan (7.25 billion U.S. dollars).

如果整个中国养猪业都采用它，这个解决方案可以节约500亿元人民币（72.5亿美元）的成本。

This is not the first time that Chinese tech companies bring digital technologies to the pig farming industry. Nine years ago, William Ding, CEO of Chinese gaming company NetEase, opened a pig farm raising non-GMO black hogs⁹ under its agricultural brand Weiyang.

这并不是中国科技公司第一次将数字技术引入养猪业。九年前，中国游戏公司网易的首席执行官丁磊开设了一个养猪场，以其农业品牌味央饲养非转基因黑猪。

Earlier this June, Alibaba's cloud unit rolled out its ET Agricultural Brain, providing AI solutions to leading pig farming companies in the country.

今年6月初，阿里巴巴的云部门推出了其ET农业大脑，为中国领先的养猪业公司提供人工智能解决方案。