COULD WE SOON
SPEAK DOLPHIN?

Are we on the cusp of achieving one of humanity’s oldest dreams: the ability to talk with animals?

Wild as it sounds, rapid advances in AI are drawing us closer to a feat we’re more used to seeing in fairy tales and children’s films, like Disney and Pixar's recent blockbuster, Hoppers.

The study of how animals produce and perceive sound (called bioacoustics) has been revolutionised by technology that allows us to collect and process recordings on a previously unprecedented scale. As a result, we now know that the chatter and noises of many animals are far more sophisticated than we’d previously thought (elephants even greet each other by name!)

This improved understanding of what animals are saying to each other raises the extraordinary prospect that we might soon be able to communicate with them directly. Are we ready to hear what they’ve got to say? And how might it change the world if we did?