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better than half our interns (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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Twitter post from Moonlit Sentences Arizona DOT installed a wildlife camera at Route 87's pedestrian crossing outside Payson last September. Standard deer migration count. After six months, they had footage of zero deer and 147 clips of the same coyote pressing the crosswalk button with its paw at sunrise. The animal waits for the walk signal. Steps into the road. Crosses at a trot. Every single time. Biologists believe it learned by watching hikers at the adjacent trailhead. "It's not random," said the lead researcher. "That coyote understands cause and effect better than half our interns." DOT voted unanimously to keep the camera running. The coyote hasn't jaywalked once.
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[–] 51 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (16 children)

Even if the picture wasn’t obvious AI, it’s not proof of the story being told. What’s being described is so implausible, you would have to be very ignorant and gullible to believe it.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    From the olden times in the era before the plague (COVID) there were tales of stray dogs who had learned to utilize public transit infrastructure to move throughout a city. I believe the city in question was said to be Moscow? My memory is fuzzy, what with 2020 through 2024 being the longest continuous year I've ever experienced in my life (so FAR...).

    It's crazy how 2016 feels like "a couple years ago" right now even though, concurrently, 2019 feels like "a couple decades ago" ._. maybe the doctor was right; Maybe time really is made of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

    I miss when AI as we presently know it was not yet a thing...

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I'd believe it with evidence, but this would absolutely get coverage from real journalists if it was real and directly involved academic researchers and a government agency like claimed, and that coverage doesn't seem to exist.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    Coyotes are smart.

    I've watched a crow check both ways for traffic before flying low across the road.

    It's not implausible at all. Are you familiar with the idea of a cargo cult?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Nah, come on. Don’t be ridiculous. Looking for traffic is one thing - checking an arbitrary box for a specific image just because humans do and understanding it immediately and without mistake is another. I don’t doubt it is possible to train a coyote to understand this, but there’s just no way this happened as stated in the post.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (4 children)

    You mean dogs can't be taught things?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    No, I don’t mean that.

    1. Dogs can’t teach themselves everything.
    2. That’s not a dog.
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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)
    1. They don't have to. Unless you think pushing a button in reach is a truly impossible feat to overcome.
    2. It's close enough to a dog.
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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Is that what the story claimed? That a coyote just pushed a button?

    Coyotes are not as trainable as dogs because they didn’t evolve alongside humans for thousands of years.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago

    I dunno. When did the first humans arrive in North America? You're talking like we don't have examples of other animals learning about/from humans in significantly less time than "thousands of years".

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