Hotel hunt

Artificial intelligence is helping find missing pets.

When the cat of senior citizen Sharon of Ridgefield, Washington, USA recently went missing, her family knocked on doors looking for Louie and checked with the local animal shelter, the Humane Society (HS) for Southwest Washington.

The Maine Coon was not there, but the HS staff suggested they upload Louie’s photo to the mobile app Love Lost and create a free profile of the missing cat. The platform works by matching lost and found pet photos uploaded by its users.

Love Lost lets AI rapidly compare images from nearly every major pet shelter across the country, plus photos posted on platforms like Nextdoor and Ring’s Neighbors app, Fox News reports.

The platform includes a secure chat feature, allowing finders and pet parents to connect without having to share personal phone numbers or emails, making communication safe and simple, according to Fox News.

Eleven days after Sharon created Louie’s profile on the user-friendly Love Lost, she received a message from another user who saw Louie on a rooftop. Sharon and some family members then went to a storage lot behind a building that hosts a veterinarian’s office to get Louie back.

Meanwhile, a hotel in Las Vegas, USA is hosting a search with a prize of $5,000 for the finder.

The qualified contestant will get a free weekend stay at the 84-year-old El Cortez Hotel & Casino on Fremont Street and be lent equipment such as electromagnetic field meters, electronic voice phenomenon recorders, and thermal sensors to detect unusual activity in the hotel’s corridors, casino floor, and other areas at night, New York Post (NYP) reports.

The searcher will use the ghost-hunting gear to verify phantom footsteps and shadowy figures reportedly heard and seen by guests.

If anything spooky is found, the ghost hunter will be expected to take photos and videos for evidence and to journal a short report of the scariest, funniest or mysterious findings, according to NYP.