A storytelling project that explores our knowledge world
The Project
The Animal Intelligence Project is a storytelling universe that brings together comics, fantasy novels, and knowledge books into a single, connected world. In this world, animals observe humans, learn our knowledge, and begin to change through that process.
While the name "AI" may sound like a play on words, it reflects a deeper purpose: to reconsider what knowledge truly means—from the animals' perspective—and to question the value and direction of our world in a time of rapid change.
The project is designed for a wide range of audiences. The fantasy series, which follows the animals' adventures and conflicts, is primarily aimed at younger readers. The knowledge books are intended for more mature audiences, including high school and university students, introducing topics such as engineering, space, philosophy, and social sciences in a visual and accessible way.
Meanwhile, the satirical comics are geared toward adult readers. They revisit the kinds of fable-like characters we once loved, but use them to deliver a sharper, more critical reflection on how AI is reshaping our world.
The Story
The story is planned as a seven-part series—a long-form narrative that portrays the Animal Intelligence Universe. It begins when the last descendant of the Barbary lion—an animal believed to be extinct—is called by the White Giraffe, the prophet of the animal world.
The animals believe that humans are destroying the world. Because of this, they decide to finally learn human knowledge—something they had long ignored—and begin a journey to do so. Their goal is to rediscover something they once had but lost—the right posture for learning and understanding knowledge.
As the story unfolds, the last Barbary lion and his team set out on this journey together.
Will the animal team be able to find that lost posture again?
Knowledge Books
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.
