How artificial intelligence is helping us decode animal languages

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to decode animal languages.
Researchers aim to use AI to advance conservation and sustainability efforts.
An “understanding of the communications of another species will be very significant as we work to change the way human beings see our role and as we figure out how to co-exist on the planet,” one expert said.

For years, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has been used to analyze and translate human languages. This field of research has helped expand human communication channels as well as led to new language-based technologies like advanced chatbots and voice command smart devices.

Today, AI is being used to study animal communication, with researchers aiming to decipher animal languages in support of conservation and sustainability efforts.

“We are on the cusp of applying the advances we are seeing in the development of AI for human language to animal communication,” said Katie Zacarian, the CEO and co-founder of Earth Species Project (ESP), an organization that uses AI to decode animal communication. “With this progress, we anticipate that we are moving rapidly toward a world in which two-way communication with another species is likely.”

ESP, a nonprofit based in California, United States, has been working for years to develop machine learning systems that can decode animal communication by identifying patterns in behavioural ecology research. This includes analysing large data sets that contain visual, oral and physical animal communications. The goal, the researchers say, is to determine under what conditions an animal produces a communication signal, how the receiving animal reacts and which signals are relevant to influencing actions.

“It’s not just as simple as a Dr. Dolittle device” — Karen Bakker, professor at the University of British Columbia

AI analysis is possible and, in fact, necessary today, given the vast amounts of animal communication data that is being collected with increasingly sophisticated sensors and recording devices, according to experts. This includes devices that can be set up and record sound in previously inaccessible habitats like deep seas and mountain tops. ESP, for instance, works with over 40 partner biologists and ecological institutions worldwide to source data collections.[…]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to decode animal languages.

Researchers aim to use AI to advance conservation and sustainability efforts.

An “understanding of the communications of another species will be very significant as we work to change the way human beings see our role and as we figure out how to co-exist on the planet,” one expert said.

Share this:

Related