logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
1m 9s

Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to ani...

Financial Times
About this episode

Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thornhill and series producer Persis Love explore how the same technology that powers ChatGPT is being applied to research in animal communication. Could we one day learn to ‘speak whale’ or even chat with bats? And if so, can we trust ourselves to do so responsibly?


Subscribe now to the FT's Tech Tonic podcast


Presented by John Thornhill, produced by Persis Love, sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa and Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s head of audio.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Jan 30
Blackstone lines up huge IPO pipeline
Apple reported a blockbuster rise in revenue last quarter, and Blackstone is preparing to take a series of long-held investments public. Plus, Canada’s oil industry is thriving as it pushes into Asian markets. Plus, some US oil majors are reporting earnings, which could give us a ... Show More
11m 29s
Jan 29
Investors love heavy metal
Tesla on Wednesday reported its first-ever fall in annual revenue, Donald Trump has warned Iran that “time is running out” to reach a deal to avert US military action, and the Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold. Plus, the world’s biggest mining companies have added close ... Show More
12m 1s
Jan 28
US health insurer stocks call in sick
US health insurance stocks plunged yesterday, and New Delhi and Brussels have agreed a trade deal that will eliminate up to €4bn of tariffs on EU exports. Plus, Nato is increasing its military presence in the Arctic to counter Russia. Mentioned in this podcast:US health insurer s ... Show More
11m 1s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?
<p>Subscribe now to the FT's Tech Tonic podcast: Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John T ... Show More
1m 9s
Sep 2023
Coming soon: Can AI help us speak to animals?
Subscribe now to the FT's Tech Tonic podcast: Some scientists believe that rapid advances in artificial intelligence may also hold the key to decoding animal sounds, allowing us to ‘translate’ them into human language. In a new season of Tech Tonic, FT innovation editor John Thor ... Show More
1m 9s
Sep 2023
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part one
<p>A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to listen in to all kinds of conversations outside the human hearing range, a field known as bioacoustics. Some scientists now believe these developments wil ... Show More
29m 12s
Sep 2023
Can AI help us speak to animals? Part two
<p>A hardware revolution in recording devices and a software revolution in artificial intelligence has convinced some scientists that humans will eventually be able to ‘translate’ animal and even plant sounds into human language. But what would be the consequences of humans learn ... Show More
24m 50s
Sep 2023
Can AI help us speak to animals? Karen Bakker interview
<p>The Canadian scientist and author Karen Bakker, who died unexpectedly in August this year, was a leading voice in the bioacoustic research community. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life, explained how it might one day be possible to create a kind of Google Translate for animals ... Show More
32m 42s
Mar 2023
Digital Dr. Dolittle: decoding animal conversations with artificial intelligence
<p>Whenever I'm out doing field work or on a hike, I’ve not only got my eyes wide open, but my ears too. There’s a lot going on in a forest or under the sea - the sounds of nature. So many of those sounds in nature are about communication.</p><p>Personally, I love to chat with ra ... Show More
49m 36s
Feb 2023
Real Humans Chat About Chatbots
<p>The unstoppable march of artificial intelligence carries on. In mere weeks, AI has oozed into nearly everything we interact with on the internet, from conversations, to journalism, to how we look stuff up online. It's even got Google scrambling to reclaim its spot on the searc ... Show More
32m 53s
May 2023
Talking With Animals… Using AI
Despite our serious concerns about the pace of deployment of generative artificial intelligence, we are not anti-AI. There are uses that can help us better understand ourselves and the world around us. Your Undivided Attention co-host Aza Raskin is also co-founder of Earth Specie ... Show More
24m 1s
Oct 2023
Coming soon: Superintelligent AI
<p>&nbsp;In a new series of Tech Tonic, FT journalists Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill look at the concerns around the rise of artificial intelligence. Will superintelligent AI bring existential risk, or a new renaissance? Would it be ethical to build conscious AI? How intell ... Show More
4m 10s
Oct 2023
Could an orca give a TED Talk? | Karen Bakker
What if we could hear nature's ultrasonic communication -- and talk back? From a bat's shrill speech to a peacock's infrasound mating call, conservation technology researcher Karen Bakker takes us through a sound bath of animal noises that are far outside humanity's range of hear ... Show More
15m 37s