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The human desire to communicate with animals is as old as it is universal. It is woven into Indigenous storytelling traditions and echoed in the Old Testament, where humans lived in perfect harmony with animals in the Garden of Eden. It can be found in modern stories ranging from\u00a0The Jungle Book\u00a0to\u00a0The Story of Doctor Dolittle\u00a0to\u00a0Urmel from the Ice Age. Today, that ancient dream might be closer than ever, thanks to rapidly evolving artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Researchers from the Whale-SETI\u00a0project\u00a0used machine-learning technology to communicate with a humpback whale. The team recorded typical humpback whale contact calls \u2013 vocalisations used for social connection \u2013 and played them underwater via loudspeakers. A\u00a038-year-old\u00a0female whale named Twain approached, circled the boat, and engaged in a\u00a020-minute\u00a0exchange, responding to each call with precise timing. She mirrored the turn-taking intervals used by the scientists, suggesting a dynamic and intentional form of communication. We don\u2019t know exactly what she was trying to say \u2013 but, in that moment, it felt as if a whale was holding a conversation\u00a0with us.<\/p>\n
This fascinating encounter points towards the potential to engage in multispecies dialogue. AI technologies are used to decode the vocalisation patterns of\u00a0crows\u00a0and other social animals, such as\u00a0whales,\u00a0elephants\u00a0and\u00a0bats. It is increasingly used to uncover the meaning behind their signals, shedding new light on how and what animals communicate. If this technology were ever to be integrated into everyday devices, it might allow curious city dwellers to understand what the birds in the tree next door are so loudly discussing. But, until that day comes, it at least allows scientists to gain a better understanding of these animals.<\/p>\n
But should we embrace this possibility? At first glance, these new technologies could be a friend to animals, allowing human beings to expand their knowledge of animals\u2019 emotional and social lives. In northern Spain, carrion crows are known to form stable family groups \u2013 an unusual behaviour, given that the species typically lives alone or in pairs. Could this social structure be tied to the way these birds\u00a0communicate? Meanwhile, the New Caledonian crow has gained fame for its remarkable tool-making abilities. But, even within this species, researchers have identified cultural differences in how tools are crafted across populations. Could distinct vocal \u2018dialects\u2019 be part of the explanation? AI could\u00a0tell us.<\/p>\n
It could also be used to understand the lives of animals that are often perceived as less intelligent than crows. In North America, the communication capacities of prairie dogs have been extensively\u00a0studied\u00a0by the biologist Con Slobodchikoff. After decades of observation, we now know that prairie dogs can describe their environment in great detail, including calling attention to the human intruders who disturb their peace. Through various alarm calls, prairie dogs can share information about humans\u2019 size and speed and the objects they carry with them. Similarly,\u00a0cows\u00a0and their calves use a distinct, individual moo to call each other. Its pitch even varies according to the mother and baby\u2019s physical proximity, getting lower when they are close to each other and higher when they are separated, thus expressing important emotional changes that testify to the strength of their bond. Chickens have been\u00a0observed\u00a0\u2018speaking\u2019 to their chicks before the eggs hatch.<\/p>\n
If AI were used to develop a more fine-grained understanding of these animals\u2019 ways of communicating, the consequences could be tremendously positive. It could lead us to deeply change the way we have seen and treated them so far \u2013 as creatures to whom we have denied language and agency, simply because animal communication had previously been beyond our grasp.<\/p>\n
On a practical level, AI could mean improved legal protection and higher welfare standards for animals, as well as significant social changes. Would injuring or killing cawing crows go unnoticed, as is sometimes the case, if we come to realise that the birds are just engaging in a chat among family and friends? Would AI provide us with additional reasons to support higher animal welfare standards for farmed animals, or to consume fewer animal products and by-products, if we come to understand that chickens\u2019 clucks and cows\u2019 moos are like words of love? Would prairie dogs be more protected against habitat loss if, thanks to AI, they could more vividly express their distrust of human intruders? The potential is there. If used wisely, AI could help us better consider animals\u2019 interests, such as their desire to interact with other members of their species or their preference to live free from human interaction.<\/p>\n
More ambitiously, AI could foster the type of interspecies democracy proposed by several philosophers over the past\u00a015 years. In their book\u00a0Zoopolis\u00a0(2011), Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka challenge traditional assumptions about animals\u2019 incapacity to communicate, and argue we should stop seeing animals as passive beneficiaries or victims of human actions. Animals are not voiceless. They express preferences and desires, form meaningful relationships, and negotiate their environments in significant ways. According to Donaldson and Kymlicka, animals are agents whose interests should be considered in political decision-making. In other words, we should pay attention to what animals are trying to\u00a0tell us.<\/p>\n
Could AI foster such an interspecies democracy? It would probably be utopian to think so. More realistically, AI could help us make more informed political decisions in the short term. Before going ahead with projects that could deeply disturb animals\u2019 social and emotional lives \u2013 cutting down a tree inhabited by birds, developing untouched meadows, separating mother animals from their children \u2013 humans could first listen to what animals have to say, thanks to AI. And maybe this would lead us to change our minds about decisions we thought would not be so harmful.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, if AI enables us to understand what animals are saying, we will need to rethink some of our habits, such as confining animals in cages. If we could clearly understand what animals do not feel comfortable with, this could lead to a change in animal welfare laws. While this is the minimum animal philosophers call for, AI for animal communication also comes with the potential to change political decision-making more substantially. For example, legislators could more accurately represent animals\u2019 interests in democratic decision-making processes. Would that mean dogs would have the right to not be left alone for a whole day if they did not want to, or that horses would have the right to spend more time grazing than in stables? Maybe. Maybe AI could let us know if that is what the dog or horse prefers.<\/p>\n
Yet the use of AI to communicate with animals comes with risks. Animal communication is an incredibly complex phenomenon. Even more than human communication, it relies on non-verbal cues.\u00a0AI can help us understand animal communication only if it analyses articulated forms of communication as well as interpreting them correctly in the context of non-verbal gestures. But, as good as AI tools such as language models are at finding patterns, they are often not actually\u00a0deciphering\u00a0meaning. And, even when they do appear to get it right, there is no guarantee that they actually have. In fact, even AI developers sometimes cannot fully explain how a model arrived at a certain result \u2013 a challenge widely known as the \u2018black box\u2019 problem in AI science and ethics.<\/p>\n
This raises a troubling possibility: we might end up generating digital animal sounds that seem meaningful to the animals, but without actually knowing what we are saying. As Tom Mustill highlights in the book\u00a0How to Speak Whale\u00a0(2022), the sounds of animal communications probably are \u2018the glue that holds their cooperative lives together \u2013 vital in keeping close, hunting, navigating, mating, and protecting one another.\u2019 Exposing them to digitally generated sounds that irritate or confuse them could interfere with the culture of an animal population that has evolved over hundreds of years. What consequences could that have for the habit of Spanish carrion crows to form family bonds, the practice of prairie dogs to describe their environments in great detail, or the intense bonds between cows and calves? We do not know, and it may not be worth\u00a0finding out.<\/p>\n
Avoiding the most serious risks by refraining from exposing animals to irritating sounds may seem like a safeguard, but it is not sufficient. Even if we succeed in generating animal sounds that convey accurate meaning and elicit reliable responses, the potential for misuse remains high. Such technologies could be weaponised to deceive animals using their own modes of communication, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of hunting and poaching rather than benefiting the animals. The consequences of these practices are ethically troubling. Animals suffer from hunting and poaching not only physically but\u00a0psychologically. Except in cases of subsistence hunting, such suffering cannot be justified.<\/p>\n
Moreover, several philosophers find it plausible that animals, too, wish to continue living. Among them, the philosopher\u00a0Martha Nussbaum, in\u00a0Frontiers of Justice\u00a0(2006), argues that animals have an interest in developing their species-specific capabilities \u2013 an endeavour that necessarily requires continued life. The philosopher\u00a0Mark Rowlands\u00a0emphasises in\u00a0Animals Like Us\u00a0(2002) that many animals have future-oriented interests, such as specific expectations, and therefore maintain a strong interest in continuing to live. If there is any chance that our newfound ability to communicate with animals could diminish their chances of living the fullest life possible, we should go to great lengths to ensure that AI technologies are used only to benefit animals.<\/p>\n
How can we make sure that AI does increase the wellbeing of animals instead of depriving them of a life worth living? A realistic solution is to adopt a code of moral principles that will steer corporations in the right direction. These principles must be specific enough to ensure that important values \u2013 such as animal welfare, transparency, accountability and neutrality \u2013 are respected. We wish to put forward three principles as a starting point.<\/p>\n
Principle 1:\u00a0AI should not be implemented to benefit activities or industries that systemically overlook animals\u2019 interests in avoiding suffering and continuing to live.
\nPrinciple 2:\u00a0Data on animals\u2019 vocalisation patterns should be available to the public, especially decision-makers.
\nPrinciple 3:\u00a0Governments and corporations should consult independent biologists and animal cognition specialists before developing or using language models. This would ensure that AI would not have negative effects on animals, or that these risks could be mitigated.
\nWith these principles in place, AI could benefit animals by shedding light on the complexity of their emotional, cognitive and social lives. Yet the most profound impact of AI-mediated communication might not be regulatory, but existential. If we could finally hear animals as communicative beings, we would no longer view them as passive figures in our world, but as agents within it. Animals such as whales, crows, cows, chickens and prairie dogs would no longer be seen as mute beings, but as interlocutors with preferences of their own. If humanity\u2019s ancient dream of directly communicating with animals finally comes true \u2013 or at least very close \u2013 we can envision a future in which humanity defines itself not by its separation from other animals, but by its entanglements with them, leading to more respectful human-animal relations and the willingness to listen to our fellow creatures.<\/p>\n
(psyhe.co)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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