In his books and films, Dr. Dolittle’s ability to “talk to animals” fired his imagination. Now scientists are being offered a $10 million bounty to create real conversations.
The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication was launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University. While the use of AI is not mandatory, the team says the technology can support almost any offering.
“Just as the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphs, I believe the power of artificial intelligence can help us unlock interspecies conversation,” said Jeremy Coller, president of the foundation.
The team says this idea is a priority: Researchers recently developed machine learning algorithms to translate bat squeaks, allowing them to identify the subject of fighting.
Other efforts in this field include algorithms to decipher pigs’ emotions from their grunts and rodents’ squeaks to detect when they are stressed. The World Species Project, a nonprofit group in California, is also working in the area, hoping to develop a system that can be applied to all species.
“In recent years, the scientific community’s understanding of the communication patterns of nonhuman organisms has advanced by leaps and bounds,” said Professor Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University, president of the Coller Dolittle Prize and one of the authors of the bat study. .
Relating to: Can artificial intelligence really help us talk to animals?
The grand prize for “breaking the code” will be an equity investment of $10 million (about £7.8 million) or a cash prize of $500,000, although there will be an annual prize of $100,000 to help researchers in the field “crack the code”. scientifically rigorous models and algorithms for consistent communication with nonhuman organisms until interspecies communication is achieved”.
Criteria for smaller awards include that the approaches be noninvasive and applicable to a variety of contexts, rely on the animals’ normal communication signals, and allow researchers to measure the animal’s response to attempts to communicate with it.
“We hope to announce the criteria for the grand prize after two to three years of smaller prizes,” Yovel said.
The team behind the award, whose applications will end on July 31, said that the aim is to develop a system in which animals do not realize that they are actually communicating with humans, similar to the Turing test for artificial intelligence. A computer system whose conversation with a human being is indistinguishable from that of a real person.
“We are open to any organism and any method, from acoustic communication in whales to chemical communication in worms,” Yovel said.
The team adds that the reward could have important implications for understanding the sentience of animals and therefore support animal rights.
Peter Gabriel, a musician and co-founder of the Interspecies Internet who helped develop the award concept, said: “When I made music with bonobo monkeys, I was blown away by their intelligence and musicality… I’m so happy it’s there. Are serious scientists now trying to understand both their communication and the ways we can begin meaningful interspecies communication?
Animal behavior researcher Dr. Katherine Herborn said one welfare application of technologies to unravel animal communication is to understand what farm animals might need to improve their management.
But some experts have raised ethical questions about talking to animals and questioned whether artificial intelligence can truly shed light on the meaning or function of animals’ vocalizations.
“I think no amount of AI programming can replace long-term, detailed knowledge of the society with which animals communicate,” said Robert Seyfarth.
Professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Trying to uncover the meaning of a monkey’s grunt, a dolphin’s whistle, or an elephant’s roar without knowing the social background—which would take years—is like jumping to page 137 of Pride and Prejudice and trying to explain why Elizabeth Bennett said no to Mr. Darcy. Without knowing anything about their past.”
Clara Mancini, professor of animal-computer interaction at the Open University, said it was very plausible that artificial intelligence would help us decipher animal communication. “If successful, this would, in my view, be one of the most valuable human achievements made possible by rapidly advancing technology,” he said.
But whether success in this great challenge will truly allow us to understand animals’ experiences is a different matter, he added.
“But more importantly, the question is whether we will be willing to truly listen to what animals have to say and eventually grant them the basic rights that their inherent dignity requires. I sincerely hope so.”