Overview
- The Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior said Ai died on 9 January at age 49 from multiple organ failure while under staff care in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture.
- Born in western Africa in 1976, she arrived at Kyoto University’s predecessor institute in 1977 and became the namesake of the Ai Project.
- Researchers introduced a computer-linked keyboard at 18 months, and by age five she used numbers one to six and labeled colors and objects.
- Her abilities drew international notice, including a 1985 feature in Nature and reports that she opened a padlock to escape with another chimp in 1989.
- In 2000 she gave birth to Ayumu, whose performance has informed studies of parent–offspring knowledge transfer.