Can dogs sniff cancer? An Israeli co-founded AI startup thinks so

BENGALURU, India (AFP) — When rescue dog Chloe is not tumbling across the grass on a farm outside India’s tech capital Bengaluru, she is learning to sniff human breath for cancer with a little help from AI.

Fitted with a 3D-printed helmet and harness packed with sensors, Chloe is part of experimental efforts to use dogs’ extraordinary sense of smell to develop a non-invasive test for the disease.

A growing body of global research suggests dogs can be trained to detect cancer and other human illnesses, from Parkinson’s to Covid-19.

The Bengaluru-based, Israeli co-founded startup Dognosis is using AI to analyze dogs’ brain activity, respiration and body language — turning their reaction to scent into data.

“In an hour, they can do thousands of sniffs,” co-founder Akash Kulgod, 26, told AFP. “Each sniff can evaluate a sample.”