--- title: "Ambitious Researchers Want to Use AI to Talk to All Animals" description: "Kingdom Come A group of animal lovers with backing from a LinkedIn cofounder are looking to use machine learning to translate animal \"language\" into something humans can understand — and they want to apply it to the whole animal kingdom. As The Guardian reported, the California-based nonprofit Earth Species Project, or ESP if you're feeling fancy, […]" date: "2022-08-04" modified: "2022-08-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/machine-learning-animal-translator" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "animals" - "machine learning" - "the digest" --- # Ambitious Researchers Want to Use AI to Talk to All Animals ![A group of animal lovers is looking to use machine learning to translate animal "language" into something humans can understand.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Kingdom Come A group of researchers are looking to use machine learning to translate animal "languages" into something humans can understand — and they want to apply it to the whole animal kingdom, a highly ambitious plan to say the least. As [*The Guardian* reports](), California-based nonprofit Earth Species Project (ESP) — which was founded in 2017 with the help of Silicon Valley investors [like LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman]() — plans to first decode animal communication via machine learning, and then make its findings available to all. ESP co-founder and president Aza Raskin says that the group, which published [its first paper]() in December 2021, doesn't discriminate and is looking to help humans communicate with, or at least understand, as many species as possible. "We’re species agnostic," Raskin told *The Guardian*, adding that the translation algorithms the ESP is developing are designed to "work across all of biology, from worms to whales.” ## Moon Shot In the interview, Raskin likened the group's ambitions to "going to the Moon," especially given that, like humans, animals also have various forms of non-verbal communication, like bees doing a special "wiggle dance" to indicate to each other that they should land on a specific flower. Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges the group is facing, the project has made at least some progress, including an experimental algorithm that can purportedly detect which individual in a noisy group of animals is "speaking." A second algorithm reportedly can generate mimicked animal calls to "talk" directly to them. "It is having the AI speak the language," Raskin told *The Guardian*, "even though we don’t know what it means yet." While there are certainly exciting implications to this kind of research, particularly when it comes to conservation and convincing skeptics that animals are worth saving, Raskin admits that AI likely won't be the only answer to saving them. "These are the tools that let us take off the human glasses," he concluded, "and understand entire communication systems." **READ MORE:** [Can artificial intelligence really help us talk to the animals?]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More on animal AI:** [*Smart Pet Door Uses Facial Recognition to Keep Strange Animals Out*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()