Purrfect! A smart shelter powered by AI keeps stray cats warm in winter

A constant temperature of 27 degrees, a water bowl that never freezes, a comfy mat, and no dogs allowed.

Those are the amenities for felines in a neighborhood in Beijing's Shunyi district, where stray cats can loll around contentedly all winter, nibbling food and sipping water, safe from the weather and provided with love through an artificial intelligence platform. It is purrfection.

Wan Xi, an engineer at Baidu Brain - the open AI platform of Baidu - had the idea of building a smart shelter for strays when he found a kitten huddled on his car tire in the winter of 2017.