Technology helps innovation. And one amazing technological advance is artificial intelligence. It is everywhere – in homes, offices, hospitals, banks, schools, businesses, etc. Another exciting but lesser known development in the field of AI is its ability to assimilate and interpret themeaning of animal communication. What sounds incredible, is already reality.
Siri, Alexa, and Contena are no longer strangers. Instead, they are fix family members. In today’s ubiquity of AI-powered applications, the world is rapidly progressing. Some of the tools scientists are employing to decipher the language of various animals and enable two-way communication with other species. Against this background it is worthy to look at the benefits of decoding animal language, ongoing projects in this direction, and the challenges ahead.
Availbale tools to understand animal interactions?
The science of studying the behavior and conversations of animals has been around for a long time. However, with emerging technologies simplifying many aspects and fostering innovation, decoding interspecies conversations is gaining momentum.
In Karren Bakker’s new book, The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing us closer to the World of Animals and Plants, she says: “Digital technologies, so often associated with our alienation from nature, are offering us an opportunity to listen to nonhumans in powerful ways, reviving our connection to the natural world.”
There is a wide variety of digital tools available that facilitate understanding the animal overtones. Some of these are:
• Automated listening software
• Miniaturized versions of microphones
• Drones
• Robots
• Spectrograms
These tools, such as miniature microphones, are stuck in the trees or other places to capture the sounds of honeybees, the chirping of birds, and more. Likewise, drones and robots gather the voices of elephants or other animals on land. Yet other listening software is taken underwater to decode what the sperm whales or dolphins are saying to each other. Tools like spectrograms help to analyze frequencies in sound that are outside the normal hearing range of human beings(the ultra and infra ranges).
AI experts use machine learning algorithms that gather all these data from various devices and analyze them to draw meaningful insights. The greater the amount of data, the better the decoding accuracy will be. ML plays a significant role in distilling huge volumes of data sets and helping experts detect patterns and trends, enabling them to come to actionable results.
Current Usage Of AI To Decode Animal Language
Several projects and endeavors are going on in the field of decoding and understanding animal interactions. Some of these include:
• Earth Species Project (ESP) by Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Raskin and the team are collecting sound samples of various species and leveraging AI and ML to analyze the data.
• Project Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) is another research initiative where the team is focusing on a particular species like the sperm whale.
• Google Bard and ChatGPT are also being used to help in this area.
Benefits Of Using AI To Decode Animal Communication
• Estimate if there are any dangers. This could greatly prevent certain species from going extinct.
• By listening closely and understanding what pets say or feel about human beings, it is possible to establish a closer relationship with them.
• Decoding animal conversations will help save forests, conserve wildlife, and protect the environment.
Challenges In Using AI To Decipher Animal Conversations
• Currently, there is not a lot of data available on animal sounds. Experts use machine learning software to interpret and form patterns. ML, in turn, relies on the input data. So, if the data is insufficient, the accuracy of the outcomes is also reduced.
• Another key challenge is that humans interpret ML patterns and derive conclusions from what the animals are saying. However, there is a lack of foundation on which all decisions are based. After all, humans can’t “say with certainty” what the animals are talking about.
• The relationships that exist among humans and those that exist between animals are not the same. Apart from the mother-offspring link, it cannot be stated with certainty how the other members of a species family connect with each other.
• Furthermore, conversations are not just words; they carry emotions as well. Even if some words or sounds can be deciphered, understanding the deeper emotions could pose a challenge.
Conclusion
AI is powerful and certainly capable of innovation. It will be a significant milestone achieved when humans are able to understand what the other species are communicating. One caveat: challenges apart, even if this remarkable innovation materializes, we must be loyal to animal friends and not use their conversations to the humans „advantage” or to harm them.
Author: Luboslava Uram
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