AI opens new era in cognitive studies of wild primates Skip to main content Scientists created an AI system that uses facial recognition and real-time, touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studi
By Coderz Club · 2026-08-02 · Tags: ai
AI opens new era in cognitive studies of wild primates
Skip to main content Scientists created an AI system that uses facial recognition and real-time, touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studies of capuchin monkeys in the wild. The American Journal of Primatology published a proof-of-concept for the novel method — dubbed CapuchinAI — developed by researchers at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. The article provides a roadmap for the first scalable, systematic way to evaluate and monitor the cognitive abilities of wild primates. “The primate brain didn’t evolve in a lab, it evolved in complex, competitive environments,” says Marcela Benítez, Emory assistant professor of anthropology and senior author of the paper. “Yet primate cognition is rarely studied in the wild because the experimental control needed to measure cognition is difficult in unpredictable environments.” “CapuchinAI” integrates a compact, battery-powered computing system into a field-research platform. The system identifies an approaching monkey, presents a learning task tailored to that individual on a touchscreen, and automatically delivers a food reward if the monkey performs the task correctly. Field tests of the prototype in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica found that CapuchinAI identifies individual capuchins with 97% accuracy, following training on still images and videos. Wild capuchins rapidly habituated and learned touchscreen-reward associations, demonstrating that the system provides a scalable field method for cognitive testing, while also mapping individual differences across tasks. A capuchin learns to associate touching the computer screen with the automatic delivery of a food reward — a slice of dried forest banana. A capuchin learns to associate touching the computer screen with the automatic delivery of a food reward — a slice of dried forest banana. “This project builds on the legacy of Frans de Waal,” says Federico Sánchez Vargas, first author of the paper and an Emory PhD student in anthropology. De Waal pioneered studies of animal cognition as director of Emory’s Living Links Center for the Advanced Study of Ape and Human Evolution, while also writing best-selling books that helped popularize the field. He passed away in 2024. In addition to lab-based behavioral experiments, de Waal “gave us intimate, beautiful portraits of the lives of primates, treating them as individuals,” Sánchez Vargas says. “Our AI method allows us to more deeply understand individuals that we already have data on through field observation. We can now automate cognitive testing of them and quantify the findings. It’s a way of getting into the minds behind the personalities. Studying individuals in their natural environments, where there are tons of variations in their life experiences, lets us learn how environmental influences shaped them.” Emory primatologist Marcela Benítez, center, in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica with two of her graduate students: Nicole Furgala (left) and Federico Sánchez Vargas. Emory primatologist Marcela Benítez, center, in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica with two of her graduate students: Nicole Furgala (left) and Federico Sánchez Vargas. Co-authors of the paper include Jacob Abernethy, Georgia Tech associate professor of computer science; and Sai Rakshith Potluri, a former Georgia Tech graduate research assistant who is now a software engineer at ExtraHop in Seattle. The open-source paper includes a guide to the computer coding developed for the system, along with a blueprint to build a low-tech, low-cost field-research platform and to integrate all the components into a closed-loop pipeline. The authors hope other scientists will adapt their AI method to generate cognitive data spanning different species of wild primates, living in a range of environments. Capuchin monkeys are known for their intelligence, complex social structures and curiosity, making them ideal models for investigating the evolution of cognition. Capuchin monkeys are known for their intelligence, complex social structures and curiosity, making them ideal models for investigating the evolution of cognition. Benítez’ work lies at the intersection of anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology. She studies cooperation and other social behaviors in monkeys, including a captive population of tufted capuchins in a laboratory and wild, white-faced capuchins in the Taboga Forest Reserve of northeastern Costa Rica. She is a co-director of Capuchinos de Taboga, a research project launched in 2017 in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Técnica of Costa Rica. Experiments with animals in labs can be tightly controlled. The results, however, may be skewed since the animal is not interacting within its natural environment. Animal behavior experiments in the wild provide valid social and ecological contexts but they are challenging to design and to control. “I’m trying to bridge that gap,” Benítez
Skip to main content Scientists created an AI system that uses facial recognition and real-time, touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studies of capuchin monkeys in the wild. The American Journal of Primatology published a proof-of-concept for the novel method — dubbed CapuchinAI — developed by researchers at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. The article provides a roadmap for the first scalable, systematic way to evaluate and monitor the cognitive abilities of wild primates. “The primate brain didn’t evolve in a lab, it evolved in complex, competitive environments,” says Marcela Benítez, Emory assistant professor of anthropology and senior author of the paper. “Yet primate cognition is rarely studied in the wild because the experimental control needed to measure cognition is difficult in unpredictable environments.” “CapuchinAI” integrates a compact, battery-powered computing system into a field-research platform. The system identifies an approaching monkey, presents a learning task tailored to that individual on a touchscreen, and automatically delivers a food reward if the monkey performs the task correctly. Field tests of the prototype in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica found that CapuchinAI identifies individual capuchins with 97% accuracy, following training on still images and videos. Wild capuchins rapidly habituated and learned touchscreen-reward associations, demonstrating that the system provides a scalable field method for cognitive testing, while also mapping individual differences across tasks. A capuchin learns to associate touching the computer screen with the automatic delivery of a food reward — a slice of dried forest banana. A capuchin learns to associate touching the computer screen with the automatic delivery of a food reward — a slice of dried forest banana. “This project builds on the legacy of Frans de Waal,” says Federico Sánchez Vargas, first author of the paper and an Emory PhD student in anthropology. De Waal pioneered studies of animal cognition as director of Emory’s Living Links Center for the Advanced Study of Ape and Human Evolution, while also writing best-selling books that helped popularize the field. He passed away in 2024. In addition to lab-based behavioral experiments, de Waal “gave us intimate, beautiful portraits of the lives of primates, treating them as individuals,” Sánchez Vargas says. “Our AI method allows us to more deeply understand individuals that we already have data on through field observation. We can now automate cognitive testing of them and quantify the findings. It’s a way of getting into the minds behind the personalities. Studying individuals in their natural environments, where there are tons of variations in their life experiences, lets us learn how environmental influences shaped them.” Emory primatologist Marcela Benítez, center, in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica with two of her graduate students: Nicole Furgala (left) and Federico Sánchez Vargas. Emory primatologist Marcela Benítez, center, in the Taboga Forest Reserve of Costa Rica with two of her graduate students: Nicole Furgala (left) and Federico Sánchez Vargas. Co-authors of the paper include Jacob Abernethy, Georgia Tech associate professor of computer science; and Sai Rakshith Potluri, a former Georgia Tech graduate research assistant who is now a software engineer at ExtraHop in Seattle. The open-source paper includes a guide to the computer coding developed for the system, along with a blueprint to build a low-tech, low-cost field-research platform and to integrate all the components into a closed-loop pipeline. The authors hope other scientists will adapt their AI method to generate cognitive data spanning different species of wild primates, living in a range of environments. Capuchin monkeys are known for their intelligence, complex social structures and curiosity, making them ideal models for investigating the evolution of cognition. Capuchin monkeys are known for their intelligence, complex social structures and curiosity, making them ideal models for investigating the evolution of cognition. Benítez’ work lies at the intersection of anthropology, psychology and evolutionary biology. She studies cooperation and other social behaviors in monkeys, including a captive population of tufted capuchins in a laboratory and wild, white-faced capuchins in the Taboga Forest Reserve of northeastern Costa Rica. She is a co-director of Capuchinos de Taboga, a research project launched in 2017 in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Técnica of Costa Rica. Experiments with animals in labs can be tightly controlled. The results, however, may be skewed since the animal is not interacting within its natural environment. Animal behavior experiments in the wild provide valid social and ecological contexts but they are challenging to design and to control. “I’m trying to bridge that gap,” Benítez