Chinese startup Meng Xiaoyi from Hangzhou has introduced PettiChat, an AI-powered device designed to help owners understand their pets. The gadget attaches to an animal’s neck and, according to the company, analyzes sounds, movement, behavior and emotional signals before turning them into short human-language phrases.

The device is priced at 799 yuan, or about $118. Meng Xiaoyi says it has already received more than 10,000 preorders, and the system is reportedly powered by Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen language model. The company claims accuracy of around 95%, but has not publicly explained how that figure was measured.

That is the main reason for skepticism. Meng Xiaoyi has not released peer-reviewed studies, independent test results, dataset details or a clear evaluation method. So it is too early to describe the product as a true translator for dogs and cats. At this stage, it appears closer to pattern recognition: matching tone, frequency, posture, activity and context to likely emotional states.

Investor and consumer interest suggests the market for AI pet devices could be large. But PettiChat still needs independent validation before it can be treated as a scientifically proven pet translator. For now, it is a promising but controversial AI gadget at the intersection of pet tech, entertainment and behavioral analytics.