{"slug": "china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river", "title": "China is using AI facial ID to track migrating fish in Tibet’s largest river", "summary": "China has deployed an AI-driven fish facial recognition system to track migrating fish through a fishway on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, replacing manual counts. The system, reported by Global Times, has helped around 570,000 rare fish swim upstream since the fishway opened in 2015, according to Yang Xiaocheng, director of safety and environmental protection at the dam.", "body_md": "# China is using AI facial ID to track migrating fish in Tibet’s largest river\n\nRound-the-clock tracking system helps to identify and monitor species travelling through a dam fishway on the Yarlung Tsangpo River\n\n[artificial intelligence](https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article)-driven fish identification system to conduct round-the-clock tracking of species passing along a fishway on a dam on Tibet’s largest river.\n\nMonitoring the route once relied on labour-intensive manual counts, but it now uses an AI-based “fish facial recognition” system to identify species unique to the Tibet autonomous region, according to a report published by Global Times on Tuesday.\n\n[Yarlung Tsangpo](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3359873/active-fault-line-threatens-worlds-biggest-hydropower-project-chinese-geologists-warn?module=inline&pgtype=article)River in 2015, the fishway, also known as a fish ladder, has helped around 570,000 rare fish swim upstream.\n\n[hydropower station](https://www.scmp.com/topics/renewable-hydropower?module=inline&pgtype=article?module=inline&pgtype=article?module=inline&pgtype=article),” Yang Xiaocheng, director of safety and environmental protection at the dam, told Global Times.\n\n“On the contrary, the aquatic ecology and animal-plant life in the entire middle gorge section of the Yarlung Tsangpo River have shown positive changes,” Yang added.\n\nHydropower facilities offer flood protection and a reliable renewable energy source to offset intermittent renewables such as solar and wind. But they also pose significant environmental challenges due to the restructuring of natural water bodies.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3363112/china-using-ai-facial-id-track-migrating-fish-tibets-largest-river?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-08-10 02:00:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-10 02:15:01.651897+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "computer-vision"], "entities": ["Global Times", "Yarlung Tsangpo River", "Yang Xiaocheng"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-is-using-ai-facial-id-to-track-migrating-fish-in-tibets-largest-river.jsonld"}}