In the Dr Dolittle books and films, the ability to “talk to the animals” captured the imagination. Now scientists are being offered a $10m prize to create real conversations.
“In recent years, the scientific community’s understanding of the communication patterns of non-human organisms has advanced in leaps and bounds,” said Prof Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University, who is chair of the Coller Dolittle Prize and co-authored the bat study.
The team behind the prize, which closes for submissions on 31 July, said the goal is to develop a system whereby animals do not realise they are actually communicating with humans – similar to thefor AI, in which the goal is to create a computer system whose conversation with a human is indistinguishable from that of a real person.
Peter Gabriel, the musician and co-founder of Interspecies Internet, who helped to develop the concept of the prize, said: “When I played music with bonobo apes, I was stunned by their intelligence and their musicality … I’m delighted that there are serious scientists now engaged both with understanding their communication and ways through which we might begin meaningful interspecies communication.
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