A storytelling project that explores the age of AI through animal perspectives
The Animal Intelligence Project is a cross-format storytelling initiative that brings together comics, fantasy novels, and future knowledge guidebooks within one connected universe. Its name was intentionally chosen to echo Artificial Intelligence, emphasizing not only the rise of AI but also the importance of human responsibility, judgment, and choice in shaping the future.
Designed for multiple generations, the project offers different formats for different age groups. The fantasy fiction series, which follows the animals' adventures and conflicts, is primarily written for middle and high school readers, introducing major philosophical and technological questions through engaging storytelling. The knowledge-focused volumes combine engineering and AI concepts with comics and accessible explanations, making them suitable for older high school and university students. The satirical comics are aimed more at adults, offering deeper reflections on how AI is transforming society.
The animal characters—who study knowledge and attempt to understand human civilization—serve as metaphors for ourselves. While the stories highlight adventure, humor, and imagination, they also carry a clear purpose: to encourage open discussion about how humans can grow and act responsibly in a rapidly changing technological world. Positioned between anxiety and hope, the project seeks to imagine the future with balance, building a meaningful intellectual property that inspires reflection rather than fear or blind optimism.
The story begins when animals start to notice the strange contradictions and accelerating crises of human civilization. Sensing that humans may be heading toward self-destruction, they decide to study human knowledge in order to help. With the assistance of AI, the animals begin learning science, history, and technology. However, this process does not merely transform their understanding of humans—it also triggers profound social, political, and ethical changes within the animal world itself.
As the narrative unfolds, the animals encounter a series of crises and disasters caused by the misuse of AI. Through these experiences, they are forced to confront fundamental questions: How should one live? What lies at the core of a meaningful life? How can knowledge and AI be used thoughtfully rather than blindly or destructively? And what kinds of hope and meaning should the next generation carry forward?
This universe unfolds across multiple formats, including satirical comics, a long-form fantasy series, and illustrated publications.
Knowledge Book is a companion knowledge series to the AIU universe, written alongside the main narrative. It serves as an organized collection of knowledge explored by animals, designed to help readers intuitively understand modern ideas through comics and storytelling.
Knowledge Book I — Observation
The animal world observes and records human concerns and conflicts from the Industrial Revolution through the World Wars and into modernity. Watching the introduction of artificial intelligence in the present day, the animals sense crises that are likely to repeat within human society. This volume presents a collection of 20th- and 21st-century human mathematics, philosophy, and history, compiled by a cat who leads the animals' intelligence and espionage efforts.
Knowledge Book II — Engineering
Having lost trust in humans, the animals begin studying engineering in order to solve the world's problems themselves. Their ambition is to acquire technologies more advanced than those of humans and ultimately achieve terraforming—the ability to control planetary-scale environments. However, internal conflicts fracture animal society, and their technological ambitions remain at the conceptual stage. This era focuses on birds trained in engineering and reptiles with strong IT expertise, exploring applied mathematics, computer science, environmental engineering, and energy engineering.
Knowledge Book III — New Design
After the collapse of animal society, those who remain realize that technology alone is insufficient to solve the world's problems. To avoid repeating humanity's long-standing mistake of "technology first, institutions later," the animals decide to redesign society itself. Centered on cattle who study law and raccoons who study economics, this volume explores AI ethics and new forms of economics shaped by digital technology.
Knowledge Book IV — Expansion
Exhausted by endless internal conflicts, some birds and Australian marsupials choose not to participate in the new social design. Instead, they plan to leave Earth. Drawing on materials taken from advanced human research institutes, they begin studying cosmology, survival in space, and the construction of extraterrestrial habitats. Although they ultimately recognize the limits of their technology and decide to remain on Earth, their research becomes a crucial foundation for the future expansion of the world by both humans and animals. This volume contains the animals' explorations of cosmology, biology, neuroscience, and urban engineering.