Ai, a female chimpanzee known for her amazing cognitive skills, died at the age of 49. Kyoto University's Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior confirmed Ai died on January 9 from old age and organ failure. She was surrounded by the staff when she passed. Ai was born in western Africa and came to the Japanese institute in 1977. She became the star of the Ai Project, a research program studying the "chimpanzee mind." Ai showed she could use numbers and identify colors. From just 18 months old, researchers gave Ai a special keyboard linked to a computer to study her memory and learning. By age five, Ai "mastered numerical naming from one to six and was able to name the number, colour and object of 300 types of samples," says Tetsuro Matsuzawa, the primatologist behind the project. Besides tests, Ai loved drawing and painting. She would freely use marker pens on blank paper without food rewards. Japanese media reported that Ai once escaped with another chimpanzee by using a key to unlock her cage. In 2000, Ai gave birth to Ayumu, her son, also famous for his memory skills. In 2017, on the 40th anniversary of the Ai Project, a scarf made from Ai's painting was gifted to renowned primatologist Dame Jane Goodall.