Honest limits
What AI Can and Cannot Determine
The most useful thing we can tell you about this system is where it stops being useful.
Capabilities and limits
What it can do
- Compare a new report against every compatible report already on file, quickly
- Measure whether two photographs look alike
- Weigh distance and dates so implausible pairs fall away
- Rank possibilities so the most promising are reviewed first
- Keep working in the background as new reports arrive
What it cannot do
- Identify an individual animal. Image comparison is not a microchip. Two similar pets of the same breed and colour can score highly.
- Confirm ownership. That is a human judgement supported by evidence such as microchips, veterinary records and photographs.
- Guarantee a reunion. Many pets are found through neighbours, shelters and local searching.
- See what was never reported. A pet nobody has reported found cannot be matched.
- Replace looking. Keep searching, keep posting locally, keep calling shelters.
Why we say “possible match”
Because that is what it is. A high score means two reports are worth a person comparing side by side. It is not a finding, and we will not present it as one. Treating a suggestion as proof would risk the worst outcome this system could produce: telling someone their pet has been found when it has not.