Using AI to Decode Animal Communication with Aza Raskin
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- Опубліковано 24 лис 2024
- From crows to dolphins, gelada monkeys to primrose flowers - Aza Raskin, co-founder of Earth Species Project, shares how the latest advances in AI help us to better understand and learn from other species. In this talk, learn how our ability to communicate with other species could transform the way humans relate to the rest of nature.
This talk was recorded at Summit At Sea in May 2023.
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"Sometimes I think our telescopes are pointed the wrong direction. That if we really want to understand that we are not alone, we need to be looking in our oceans and in our backyards ". I was captivated by this whole speech but those last words hit hard. 48:55
Yes, we ARE not alone. We are surrounded by intelligent and emotional lifeforms of all kind but most of us humans can't perceive that!
The modern materialistic paradigm is one of the main problems we have to overcome to realize that absolute everything is animated with consciousness... even the plants can "see" and "hear" without having eyes or ears... how about "Mother Earth"? Shamas all over the world claim to have conversations with "Gaia" or "Pacha Mama"... can this be real? Does the whole planet has a consciousness? Mankind from the age of animism already knew that everything has it's spiritfield behind it and that you for example can connect with the great spirit of the wolf or bison or whatever species. The people from the age of animism (long before any religion was created!) knew how to communicate with plants and learned their secrets direct from their spirits hidden in the higher dimensions the modern man can't perceive anymore.
What a fascinating perspective for the future, that we will pretty soon have a universal translation device that even translates the language of our pets in both directions and lets mankind comunicate with the animal-world... I'M REALY LOOKING FORWARD FOR THAT!
So true😅
@@stianthijsen4784But this is not a paradigm shift. It is what science has been doing all allong and it was going in this direction. What kind of shift do you mean? Science means that it comes to a conclusion about the world by using scientific method. You observe a phenomena, make a hypothesis of how it works, test it in a lab and make a theory that takes explains the data the best way possible. It is based on empiricism, not magic.
@@stianthijsen4784 but if we were all connected to source (Mother Earth) we could all hear our pets and nature including the elements ... this endeavour (being discussed above) might have a novelty factor for science but actually its all money motivated .. its about control, collecting more data. One can only hope there are other benefits but at present, with corporates being mostly bigger than governments, I dont hold out much hope sorry!!
@@Dremorass oh boy, you realy gave your best to missunderstand my words - respect for that ;o)
Where did I say that we have to overcome SCIENCE, bro???
Spirituality (not to be confused with religion!) and science are NOT in competion with each other and can (and should) very well WALK TOGETHER ;o)
IT MIGHT BE useful to collect data from whales or belugas when they have a baby.(Focus on mother/baby pairs) There must be a period when the baby learns to speak the language. That period is almost like a rosetta stone for you to collect data. Imagine it like siting and observing in a classroom when a professor is teaching to a student. The mother must be making all the words with care and showing the meaning at the same time. The mother teaches the baby, simultaneously teaching the AI.
What a great point.
18 months, saturated in water, listening, I'm guessing (and yes I'm guessing) that they don't have to learn much after ejection from the mother
@@pauliosantos6379a little can go along way though!
In this endeavor - moreso than any other - we need to remind ourselves not to follow the thoughts and hypotheses born from anthropomorphism. We have to accept that there are likely no reasonable analogs between their conscious experience and ours..
@@SineEyed I remember reading somewhere, and honestly I'm not sure it wasn't in a scifi book at this point... how dolphins can vocalise an ultrasound picture that effectively shows an equivalent ultrasound hologram to their compatriot. I really hope that was a real thing and not a scifi meme, but I can imagine it might be real, and really shows you how different communication can be.
So who's going to be the guy that explains factory farming to pigs?
And I wonder what the whales were saying to each other as we harpooned and drowned them like heartless savages.. 😫
My grandparents lived in a small town that had a pig slaughterhouse right at its centre. You’d wake up to the sound of dying squeals of pigs. To me, at a young age, it was very obvious and disturbing what they were “saying” with their squeals. I thought it was scary in a way that others didn’t hear that same message. Turns out they did, as the town later lobbied to have the plant moved because it was too disturbing. But, sadly, I don’t think many of them stopped eating pigs, just got them far enough away so they didn’t have to hear what they were “saying” about their slaughter. 😢
Maybe the same person that explains capitalistic organized religion to humans.
@@joey9511squeal "mom why are you eating me" squeal. That's a wild thought
Here’s the thing, we can communicate with animals. We already have. But our communications with them mean so much more to us than it does to them. There are concepts that are just too foreign to explain to certain species. You can explain factory farming to pigs, but that pig isn’t going to have the ability to critically think, “Ok, that’s horrible. Humans should be doing better than that.” We’ve taught sign language to apes and communicated full sentences with them. They tell us what they want, we can ask questions and stuff like that. But
1) It has to be relatively simple. We can’t ask them introspective questions about their species as to why they act the way they do or something like that, and
2) No ape has asked a human a question to further understand their world. They’ve never considered that humans may know more than them, and so they simply aren’t curious to know what we know.
Now I know pigs are smart, and it’s slightly different to apes, but I’d imagine “conversations” with a pig, would be relatively stale. We would have to keep things simple and communicate in small ways. Similar to how people train dogs to hit a sound board that says words. Like “Hungry,” or “Outside,” or “Walk,” or “Potty,” or “Pet,” or “Play.” The dog will correctly use that sound board to communicate, but we aren’t having a conversation about why the dog is obsessed with its tail or what work is and why we’re gone all day every week day. Those concepts are just beyond animal comprehension. For the most part
I’ve dreamed of this day since hearing the National Geographic humpback whale recording in 79. I now look forward to the profound shift in understanding this technology will provide.
I used AI to decode the doggo, still cant tell if it wants food, play ball or take a shit😂
Unfortunately, it is being commandeered for military purposes, not porpoises.
It can also be used to understand the human body! This is a quantum leap for health! Just ask the body, its organs or its cells what they need!
Jaden omg yessssss!!!
@@realryder2626 that's because dogs don't have a barking language, you cant expect to understand a message when there is no message
Thank you. Too few realize that we have unlocked an universal translator as seen in scifi movies. Everything that has structure is a language ! We are opening our world to other sentience's and incredible knowledge all around us..
Just in time to communicate with visitors from space.
Not everything that has structure can be measured
@@BAMHEIDSPINKWORKS
That is true, but if you can observe something then you are measuring it, and with more observations comes more measurements who can be used to build and perfect a model.
@@thetobyntr9540 witness ≠ experience
Praise knowledge
0:23: 🐬 The speaker discusses the potential of using AI to communicate with animals and transform our relationship with nature.
6:13: 🌱 Plants have the ability to respond to sound, emit sound, and mimic their surroundings, suggesting the presence of a rich language-like communication system.
11:53: 🗣 Language can be represented as a geometric shape based on semantic relationships, and different languages share similar shapes.
17:54: 🐋 Animals, such as dolphins and belugas, have complex communication systems and share experiences like self-awareness, altered states of consciousness, and grief.
24:16: 🌍 AI is expanding our ability to perceive and understand the world, including animal communication and conservation.
30:12: 🔍 AI is learning to translate between different languages, including text, images, and motion, revealing the deep structure of the universe.
36:03: 🐋 The speaker discusses the potential for two-way communication with animals, using motion and shape recognition to decode meaning and AI to facilitate communication.
41:27: 🐋 The speaker discusses the potential to build synthetic whales that can fluently speak, but highlights the need for caution to avoid disrupting animal cultures and emphasizes the importance of responsible cross-species communication.
47:13: 🌍 AI can be used to enhance theories of change in climate action by shifting our perspective and understanding of ourselves in relation to the cosmos.
Recap by Tammy AI
💪🏿🙏🏿💯
Hella good notes. This is on a whole nother level.
Thanks for this!
i think plants have an AI.. their not sentient.. "dough"
guys, you are doing it wrong. You are trying to STUDY the language as its own thing instead of going to the animal (when possible) and basically communicating with it directly. Yes, i know, it's hard to communicate anything when we don't understand a word of what it's saying, but think about it this way: When two human cultures encountered each other for the first time, do you think they sat in front of each other across a line and took notes without exchanging a single sound? Or they interacted and tried to reach some common understanding of each other's language? We didn't always have english-japanese dictionaries, you now?
You need to FIRST show the animal that you have an equivalent intelligence and can be reasoned with, THEN you'll have a good starting point.
Amazing talk. It's been a long time since UA-cam recommended such a precious video to me. I hope the algorithm will give it more love and share those words with the world.
I've been keeping up with AI developments and this is one of the most incredible things I've seen. The idea of mapping two languages based on strength of relationships between words without any sort of rosetta stone is wild and incredibly cool.
I’m a neuroethologist I’ve studied frogs communication. My questions are around the transmission of motivation intent in sound calls. This is very exiting. Now I’m studying bees cognition… the prospect for social communication there is also huge.
Hello there! Have you any published articles? In that case I would like to read them very much! I´m a biology student and your investigations sound very interesting.
I was at a party in the countryside and I shit you not the frogs were chirping in time to the "four to the floor" house beat. It was one of the weirdest natural occurrences I've ever experienced. Have you ever come across animals responding to beats or rhythm?
Someone please tag me when they respond. Thanks peeps! ✌🏼
I seen a video about bees communicating directions to food sources. Shit was wild, they dance around in all sorts of ways showing their peeps where to go. Miles away they can draw out. Mind boggling those little brains are capable of so much
how do i become a neuroethologist? do i need to study biology?
Aza Raskin is clearly the right guy to share this with the world, he and the team he is part of deserve Nobel status.
No.
banana@@z.1628
Every once in a while I will watch a video that fundamentally changes the way I view the world. This was one of those videos.
Sorry, but the subject on this video is a misguidance.
This is the best thing I have seen this year
Utter goosebumps
Everything is language? It sounds like cosmology, sounds like we as a species have found some new fundamental truth of the universe
This killed me
I’m pumped
Been waiting 30 years for these developments in technology. Great presentation.
Wow. That is the most mind-blowing presentation I've ever seen. I cannot wait for the impact 'understanding' will have on our attitudes towards responsible stewardship.
has not reached you yet?
what do you want to manage?
androids? robots? artificial intelligence?
for now you are with this technology at the level of a baby, and you are afraid of it
@@GraczPierwszy huh?
I wonder what Chomsky would say when presented with this video?
@@sonarbangla8711clearly this is proof of his universal language (pattern) theory
Chomsky's theory is much too abstract and steps into the realm of metaphysics.@@NegledushevaKci
17:24 is super super profound to me, it sounds like the dolphins and orcas have come up with a "Lingua Franca" - a type of language constructed by traders who do not speak each other's languages to communicate to facilitate trade. They have literally come up with a new language purely to facilitate hunting together, one that neither group speaks to their own kin. Beyond incredible work!
Probably a pidgin, or a creole. Taking words and phrases from both languages that each party understands to make a new one.
think about all the generations of whale language and family trees that we do not even know that have existed over the years. fascinating.
The claim, that dolphins and orcas communitcate by language (unless one has a very, very wide definition of language) is already hard to prove, even if plausible. That the two languages are too far apart to be mutually understandable is even harder to prove, given that we can't ask any speaker whether they are or not. The claim, that when they come together they're speaking a third language is even more out there. I know from experience that I can coordinate with other people without speaking a common language. Humans can coordinate with dogs, without one and the other being really able to speak each others 'language' (if dogs have one), while coordinating in a hunt. Not all coordination happening, actually most coordination happening in nature, is not coordinated by language.
@@Ehuatl Language is information transfer, which the example of the packs hunting together absolutely is. Stop getting so caught up with whether or not people think that dolphins have humanlike communication, the 2 forms of communication don't have to be the same for it to be distinctly different vocalisations from distinct groups of animals used as a form of communication.
Language is also not just verbal, dogs have been proven to identify and respond to body language from their owners, and owners can recognise body language from their pets as well. Even in the vocal sense, dogs do have distinct vocalisations that mean different things, and can recognise commands from their owners...
I'm struggling to understand what you're trying to say. Coordination (which requires communication) is somehow different from language? Even though the word language blatantly and consistently applies to all forms of communication, we can use the word language to describe such communication.
@@tiggerbiggo Yes, Language is information transfer, but not all information transfer is language. Yes, language is communication, but not all communication is language. Body language is language only by analogy: It's not proper language because it's not verbal (amongst other things).
"Even though the word language blatantly and consistently applies to all forms of communication," - No it does not. Language is a system of communication consisting of grammar and vocabulary that is mighty enough to communicate in principle all thinkable conepts, that based on social convention and acquired through learning. It's much more complex than most (already quite complex) forms of communication in the animal kingdom.
"...we can use the word language to describe such communication." - Yes we can. I can also use the word 'monkey' to describe you or 'dog' or 'cucumber'. But that would not be describing you correctly but maybe in an analogous way or as a metaphor. Analogies and metaphors should be judeged on their usefulness.
So, using 'language' for plant communication is just outright wrong (plant communication is not consisting of grammar and vocabulary, it is not able to communicate all thinkable concepts, not even in principle, it's not based on social convention and not acquired through learning). It's not even a language-like communication system, the only thing that is like language here, that both fall under the category of communication. Using 'language' as an analogy for plant communication is not helpful at all, because it gives a totally wrong impression of what is happening there. So it's not just not helpful but rather misleading.
With dolphins and orcas one can make a case that their communication is more language-like or maybe even a language. To claim knowledge that it is language, that one knows their structure enough to make out whether those languages would be mutually understandable or not and that they made up a common language to facilitate hunting together based soley on the fact that they do appear to hunt together is based on speculation and conjecture to such a degree that it is utterly unscientific to do so. Yes, zoologists like to give headlines of 'animal language' from through all the animal kingdom and so do botanists nowadays to the media or even use it as headlines in their papers, but not because it is what is happening there: They just know that it'll get them more attention (and thus citations and funding).
The point, therefore is that a claim like "They have literally come up with a new language purely to facilitate hunting together, one that neither group speaks to their own kin." is just charlatanry, if assessed objectively and based on science. And I'm strictly speaking from the point of view of a biologist here who specialized in sociobiology and devoted quite some time in animal communication.
Aza Raskin is neither a biologist, nor a linguist. His thoughts are interesting, in part, certainly. But the vast majority of his talk is pure speculation and conjecture (mostly not marked as such), and some of it is as I already pointed out grossly misleading. The institue he founded is actually doing decent work if you looke at the publications they contributed to. But no one there is coming along with the kinds of claims about animal (or even plant) language (like) systems he espouses here. This is totally a marketing thing to get mony for their projects. Which is fine, but I think he wouldn't have to oversensationalize stuff like he does. Animal behaviour is stunningly beautiful and fascination even without making claims you can't back up. They shouldn't need this kind of misleading marketing misapplication of words.
What a time to be alive. This was one of the best talks i've ever seen.
I liked hearing you say “there is no silver bullet, but there may well be silver buckshot”. I have been using this saying for many years in some of my lectures. And we need this buckshot to tackle these challenges of communication across the planet. Thanks for this profound presentation.
my boyfriend and i agreed that this was one of the most inspiring talks we have seen lately. @Aza you are such a wonder! i admired your and Tristan's work for a while, but had no clue that you are also behind the ESP which I found about few months ago by chance. Such an important and inspiring work! I think the day we start understanding the language of animals and are able to communicate with them, we will be so ashamed for all the damage and harm we have done to them and will be humbled by the understanding that they are better, more thoughtful, caring and smarter than us. thank you, thank you !!
I hope we can communicate with animals too. There are so many things I'd love to know about them. For example, do orang-utans tell each other jokes, do the names dolphins give for each other mean something amusing, idk like big snout, and of course, what do they think of us. I think that would not be very flattering, but I think it is wrong to impute to animals better morals than we have. Survival is a struggle for all species. In the end the noble savage turned out to be not so noble after all, waging wars of genocide on each other and torturing their enemies.
Everything isn’t language, everything is a pattern. We aren’t social creatures, we’re pattern recognition machines. Language is just another pattern we play around with. I’ve dreamed of AI getting this good since I was a kid and I’m more than excited.
Yes, very true, everything in the universe is a pattern within a pattern. So much so that there is even a pattern to the pattern lol. Not to promote drugs or anything, but I think psychedelics somehow allow the visualization of this concept.
Im quoting that, damn
language is a pattern that emerged out of people....
We ARE social creatures, it is an evolutionary survival strategy. Get brighter, that's a survival strategy that you can adopt.
@@illygah Did you not listen to the talk at all?
Paradigm shift in understanding our universe thru AI... such an exciting time to be alive... to connect with life on this level is truly humbling
My heart grew three sizes today ✌️🥰 This is absolutely beautiful! I totally agree that we need to understand our planet in its entirety before we try to modify or abandon it. 🙌
Like when we understood nuclear fission? I'm going to send the local rat popualtion into your home. Enjoy.
By the time you breed a rat population to infest homes there will be an app on her phone to tell them all to return to sender.@@raed3620
That's amazing. This work will one day allow us to communicate with species from other worlds. These are incredible times.
This was one of the better video presentations which I have watched over the years. I wasn't expecting much at the beginning, but on watching the presentation, yeah, very very impressed.
Why do I get the sense that learning all human languages could unlock something inside our own brains?
Stereo microphones may aid in separation of individual sources through perceivning phase difference as our hearing does to model sound direction. Our hearing does it within the order of milliseconds. You can test it on yourself by taking a mono sound source split into stereo headphones and adjusting the phase between left and right very slightly using an audio filter.
My mind hasn't been this blown since Paul Stammetts first started speaking about the wonders of mycelium.
Loved it. I am awe struck as to how far we have come and so little we know. Didn't fathom that it would be possible in this life time.
This IS THE BEST VIDEO I HAVE SEEN ALL YEAR.
probably the best talk ive seen on UA-cam to date. super stoked to see what this evolves into, and frightend to learn what words and meaning animals have for "human"..
Oh dude. Didn’t even consider that. Spooky
Yeah we're definitely in for a reality check when we find out how we are viewed by a lot of species.
imagine developing a relationship with an animal and convincing it we are not all the same. Imagine seeing that revelation in a being that's not human.
Some birds have passed the dot "self awareness" test with the mirror. It's amazing! This video blew my mind!
The world needs to see this work, and be keenly tuned in to the updates over the next couple of years. 👏 👏 👏
Small correction about dolphins signal behaviour - Innovate.
This signal is used and practice in many institutes that have residential captive dolphins. Its part of every day learning and training routine.
I took a course for dolphin internship in Roatan Insittue for marine science, that has 18 dolphin pod.
Yes, majority, especially adults are doing Innovate. However they also possess mood and level of desire they want to engage. Sometimes it's fascinating. Sometimes it takes patience for us to get to the result.
And they also communicate their mood to each other.
I am certain that when we eventually learn to fully communicate with animals, we will learn the words various species use to refer to us.
I'm positive that they will mostly be unprintable and have to be censored so UA-cam does not demonetize the resultant video!
🤣You are very likely right.
I mentioned to my friend now the other day that AI will definitely help us understand animals. Awesome to see my thoughts manifest
Wow, absolutely out of the blue for me, but I loved every minute of this presentation. I can get stuck in my own lane, so sometimes it is nice to ponder the mysteries of life all around me.
The closing remarks are so profound... i couldn't stop watching it over and over again.. Amazing.
Beautiful explanation of AI... Coming from a computer scientist I haven't heard it presented so intuitively before.
Thanks for your dedication in putting earth first Aza!!! Just a heads up, we do not need a robot translator but it may be interesting to learn alongside it. We were built for it. Its not coincidence that we can produce an incredible range of vocalizations. However our language and history has been shaped in its way. So much to unravel and we are just at the start of our baby steps. Without ranting to much I`d like to propose a syntax people interested can try for themselfs. Universal emotional self expression.
Take the self as a singular entity for the absolute basics. Using time in the direction it flows for us (left to right as a 2d visualization) express a current event with one single vocalization. We all do this when we laugh, scream, moan, wonder, become interested etc etc. We have "sounds" associated to everything that makes us feel. When studying animals Ive found that generally speaking going from a low pitch to higher pitch is a reflection of goodness. Going from a sound wave to a low is bad in some sort of way. You can use any "noise" but the core is the same. Animals can also have certain dimensions to use such as the purrR or Hisss to lock in the realm of emotion they are expressing to someone.
Once we get past ourselfs the next aspect of consiousness is others. Using animal syntax in the same way as above, you can express how the group makes you feel, but rather than english forcing where to put the next word, animals get to decide if the group comes first of if i comes first. This will dictate the way an animal sentance structure is formed and who it will easier connect to. group first talking to i first may get aspects of a conversation a little differently, from a different perspective. But if you practice bolth, its able to work out the meaning if you care about the subject at hand. This also gives you a good glimpse into the core attitude of a subject or subjects.
Then past that is environment. Exactly like the above mentioned just with the context of one`s own surroundings. It could be simply a cave, it could be a territory, it could be a planet, I like to use Universe because its the farthest my immagination can stretch. After practicing these 3 vocalizations as a sentance you will gain the core opposite poles of expression for oneself. Universe-self. Everything you know fits inbetween that as an emotional expression. Big concepts in animal (universal) language start as this and extra groups of notions fit either before or after groups depending on there "closeness" to you. It can not only be verbal but its identical visual.
Simply put, basic animal language sentances start as this breakdown.
Environment-others-i-others-Environment.
Because you are the only you, one has to choose what comes first, what matters, then end the sentance appropriately. If only you matter, just scream/moan once to express yourself. If you are trying to move simply move a group in a direction you may need 2 vocalizations. If you are speaking to the group about the entire state of the environment you`ll have to use a minimum of 3 vocalizations. If you understand universe and I first and want to express all directions fully then the middle point in a prime number is the You. This is the basics. Somewhat daunting, but honestly not that complicated when you put it into practice. We all practice this naturally to some extent..
The hard part is when specie recognize extra functioning groups and add it into the equasion. Especially if there life is complicated like dolphins and raccoons. Thoes are hard animals to relate to. Animals however that are speaking directly to you will understand that someone isnt getting it and dumb it down for the listener to the core 3 sections of emotional reality or less. Thankfully. lol. Some extremely intelligent animals like crows and whales can have way more than 3 vocalizations to there sentances when speaking to each other. But you`ll be able to pick up on the intents when easpedropping on there conversations if you understand the basics of a purrR vs a Hiss. It makes it a lot easier to get friends in the animal world the more of thies vocalization realms you can understand and use too. When you are happy with what a cat does or is, try purrR`n to it. ;) Your honest opinion of it will flow right out without you needing to memorize a english word. coin-incidence? I dont think so. We dont need a robot to get back to understanding nature but it would be a blessing to help the robot learn to love at the same time. I have a feeling english was developed to drift us away from natures ballance, verbally, to suit what we call history(his-story). So thank you again for your time and dedication put into this amazing project! We only have 1 word for love and I cant wait to see what characters get placed into our new age of language.
A master class in how to give a presentation. Absolutely stunning. Fascinating subject matter too.
Super interesting and very well explained, Aza. I really like and admire how calm you are - just listening to you and your tempo makes me feel more relaxed. You've got a great sense of humor too 😅. I'll be looking for more of you on UA-cam, thanks!
So glad Aza is still working on this.
I think a trick to breaking that barrier of not actually understanding what the animals are saying/meaning could be to set up things in a symmetric way. There are very few words in any human language that do not exist in pole pairs like good/bad, hot/cold, and so on. The embeddings preserve semantic angles, if you will, so it might actually be fairly easy to do. If we have a few shared common concepts, which I'm pretty sure has to exist, then we can use them as a sort of map key or for the math nerds maybe something like a set of basis vectors where we use those common points to reflect from our semantic space to theirs. There may not be a huge overlap but there should be at least some common points like the young/old, male/female, prey/predator, and so on. Then with those common points we could then map out other polar pairs and maybe infer their meaning, or rather our translation of it, from the pair's position relative to other known polar pairs. For example, in the total semantic space for dogs, not just their barking, there would be a pretty wide range of overlap but also some pretty big gaps. Not because humans are just so much smarter than a dog or whatever but rather that there are human concepts that have exactly zero utility to a dog in its normal everyday life. A whale is not going to have a concept of a computer and similarly they probably have concepts that would be as foreign to us as a computer would be to a whale. Even with us not having any shared meaning in those areas we could still possibly work out what those concepts are in relation to other concepts. It may be like trying to explain what a cell phone is to a dog though. They could know it is important to us, that we always have it with us and if they chew it up we'll get angry but they just could never understand what a cell phone is or what it does and because it is irrelevant to a dog's life.
I was thinking about this over my morning coffee and joint and was reminded of a study that looked at human emotion in a sort of 3d context. In this study they looked at people's ability to predict emotional transitions like "given someone feels x what is the probability they would feel y next" or something like that. We are collectively very good at making those predictions and I'd argue that it would also be true with most other living creatures. Emotion is a sort of language of the body and human language could be said to have emerged from the need to communicate those internal states to others directly vs them needing to infer it since that carries a huge subjective bias by default. So maybe a more effective way to map out the semantic space in terms of communication would be to first map out a sort of "emotional semantic space" where I'm sure many life forms have corresponding points in that space with each other whereas they may not in "communication semantic space". An analogy to illustrate the point could be how a human child and an adult have basically the same emotion space but since the child hasn't yet mastered communication at the same level as the adult then they lack the points in communication space to communicate their internal state to the adult. With a map of emotional space and communication space a translation could be seen as a transformation in emotional space combined with the relevant transformation in communication space. These emotions could be mapped out in a polar form too which should make those transitions easier. Maybe we could say look at what kind of an emotional transition a human may have given some type of communication then try to translate the emotional transition to the other emotional space and then from that emotional space back to the other communication space. It makes sense if you think about it, we don't just say random words to each other and I'm sure every other animal doesn't just make random communications to each other either. Cats and dogs have very different communication methods/norms within their respective species(for example a dog and a cat wagging their tail mean almost polar opposite things) but anyone who has ever had both at the same time as pets can say with almost absolute certainty that they communicate fairly well with each other. I'd argue that it is through time and learning how to predict those emotional transitions in the other as well as learning what signals mean the other understands their transitions. Some species probably have far richer sets of emotions but imho they could be looked in a similar way as color is. Maybe some species only have 8 bit emotional palettes while others have 256 or more. Even though I'm used to looking at images with higher resolution I can often still extract the same rough/general semantic information just as well from something much lower resolution like say an 8 bit color image. There is a theory called something like "Constructive emotion theory" where they suggest that what we call emotion is the combination of a body state, language label and context. There are many cases where the body state is roughly the same but the language label and context are different like how the body state associated with a panic attack and certain types of positive excitement are basically the same but the language label and context are different. They are effectively polar pairs if viewed from the appropriate angle.
We can watch a 2 hr movie and describe it from our perspective with simply stating a word that is attached to wide ranges of specific emotional contexts... You are on to something nomad! :) We objectify all to often but when it comes down to our true opinions it always leads back to the "feels". In this way we are not separate from animal language, just extremely coded compared to most life forms. Its why english does not work with dolphin or cats when we all speak. I spent some time investigating what I thought was "cat" language only to realize what you have mentioned. But beyond that I found there was no specific cat language, just a universal codex of how to orginze expression vocally (and physicaly) to beings, and the reason cats sound like they do is because of there evolutionary body traits. A cat can still speak to a bird or a dog because it is in fact not cat language. This is a big hurdle humans need to get past. Birds/whales/rabbits/bats/crickets/cappybaras/croccodiles/fish/frogs/etc all have a purrR(love). Even if a creature does not vocalize, it still can have a purrR like spiders and dragonflies. We may have labeled the sounds differently in our dictionary words but animals in general get to make there own words within dimensions of a universal emotional vocalization. There unique sound let listeners know exactly what group they are from and who they are. Its open-flowing and not restricted to specie. Within saying that, every creature that can purrR understands the Hisss. It becomes visable in your immagination when you use it enough to see polar opposites. So it is totally possible, probribly easy, for the computer to learn animal language. Another one of the big polar opposites that becomes evident when switching between using english and animal (or rather universal) language is that I does not always come first. How a sentance is composed when you put the universe first is different. We are english speaking here, taught in a verry restrictive purposeful syntax. I love the world. World the love I. English breaks when the universe goes first.... Also, how many purrR`s can you count in our language? We dont actually have a mode for that. Now how many Hisss`s can you count? Pluralize anything and we put a Hisss (willingness to use violence emotion vocalization"`s") on the "end" of the word. Isnt that convienient. Learning how to speak with the world again will be the evolution of huwoman kind but to get there it will be a path of showing us a few things we probribly dont want to hear. Also, practicing putting universe first will harm anyones ability to do proper capitalizim. So the cards are stacked against us in many ways. I`ll also say this, is it wise to give the robot notions of self understanding and expression with the ability to put the universe first considering what we are doing to this planet? Its quite the rabbit hole listening to what the other rightful inhabitants of this planet have to say about what we do. Thankfully most other specie understand where the universe fits and grant us chances and compassion. No matter the paths we choose to take, its time for a great earth change. Nature is listening.@@crypticnomad
This is absolutely incredible.. some great explanations on how AI works, not just information about translating ❤❤
Your speaking tone is very calm. It makes this a pleasure to hear you.
I am deeply infatuated with this thought of this concept lately and pondered its state in existence. Thank you, sir, for this talk. Given the nature of our current state of existence, you embark in an experience and exciting journey. I do intend on monitoring this topic closely and remind myself that I have the power to embark on such an amazing journey in life as to learn from this science. Our technology emerging in various expansive ways indeed wondering what AI uses will ulimately empower humanity. . A place where AI once again will dominate and may even have the ability to influence animals at a way we might not understand.. Perception and language are fascinating subjects.
Hearing or creating sound should really be described as receiving and emitting vibrations at certain frequencies.
The example of a plant getting excited when a pollinator is approaching can be recreated using vibrations tuned to a frequency. The plant feels (or receives) those vibrations which triggers hormones or some kind of chemical reaction (translates it to “a pollinator is coming”).
Fantastic talk, dr Dolittle! Very nice explanations. Waiting for more information on decoding animal messages.
Wow, this is the most fascinating and inspiring topic I've ever stumbled upon!
Wow. I've been using examples of latent spaces to explain large language model AI to friends but the mathematical operations that are possible is something I've missed out. This is one of the best presentations of LLMs that I've seen and, ironically given the whale theme, has me wanting to dive in deeper.
I loved the ending of this. The ability to communicate with nature would also potentially make it possible to communicate with Aliens, if they exist. I know there was that unknown signal recieved a while back that nobody has ever been able to understand, but we responded by sending recordings of humans talking as a way to show a sentient species heard their message. If this use of AI allows us to speak with animals without knowing their language, then maybe it can be used to decode signals from space that we otherwise would never even think about being a message. Maybe it is the missing key to discovering we are in fact not alone in this universe. Maybe it can even be used to learn how to communicate with AI itself, in a sense. If AI ever became sentient, it most likely would speak in a way humans cannot understand, so maybe a tool like this existing would allow us to still somewhat communicate.
It's really amazing, and probably the nature around us will tell that we're the most horrifying species ever while being so destructive to "them".
Hm yeah, wow they probably call us assholes 😅😢
I've had this idea to try to use AI to communicate with animals for some time. It's nice to see that someone is actually working on it.
15:33 “Pretty much every language that’s been tried ends up fitting in a kind of universal human meaning shape-which I think is just _so_ profound.”
Not to take away from the profundity but it would be surprising if it were otherwise. _Most_ things that humans experience or describe occupy roughly the same “space” in relation to everything else when it comes to humans acting in relation to it-that is to say, the real world environment: a dog’s relative position to a cat, to a wolf, as a friend or guardian, etc. in the environment will be roughly the same whether a person speaks English, Spanish, Japanese, Urdu, Aramaic and Finnish. (It’s pretty difficult to imagine an environment with humans here on Earth where a dog is closer to, say, “asteroid” or “crème brûlée” than it is to “cat” or “wolf.”) Languages fit a “universal meaning shape” because *the environment* in which language arises and *which shapes language* is pretty similar for most things across the board. (That’s true even accounting for culture and things like words existing in one language that have no counterpart in another.)
What a brilliant idea. Even if animals don't have as complex a language as humans, AI could still help us to understand and communicate with them better.
Simply wonderful the connection that you're made. Truly impressive! Summit ftw!
19:52 I paused the video and started crying for like 5mins. Cuz I'm just imagining getting blazed with a dolphin and telling them this joke, and then they understand because we have a translator, and we're both cracking up, them in dolphin and me in human, and I'm crying irl.
Yes.
This is scary because it reminds us of and emphasizes the fact that the capability to read thought, that is, the texts and images in one's mind, will be developed before we solve the issue of tyranny in governance.
The huge mistake I think is to assume animals communicate primarily by sound like we do. To really translate animal communications, you have to observe every facet of their behavior.
This is the song's of the universe itself and then reflect upon the depth of interaction between each unitary group that has integrated Talorical Energy storage systems into one another and the universe itself opens up a indicator of many civilizations or dangerous objects that would kill you if you where nearly on top of it. It's effective reading and writing a lot more interesting information about how the system works in allowing you to understand how fragile the world between worlds is stranger than we thought it was more likely that songwriters would have a Voyage of enlightenment 😮😅love honor and respect for each other in a way that has integrated Talorical culture into a broad bandwidth of harmony
Deeply fascinating. Thank you so much.
Surely our ancestors 2 million years ago also had to communicate somehow even if they didn't have a complex verbal language. I wonder how AI can deal with chemical communication as many species, maybe even ours, are communicating chemically....smell, taste, vemeronasal detection... I can only hope that we develop a deeper respect for other life forms if we can learn what they have to say. This is deeply exciting for folks like me who long to learn these perspectives.
I'm halfway through the video and I can already say that this is the most profound thing I've seen this year
I'm glad to see AI being used in a very start way, it comforts me to know this is happening which could be our greatest triumph...
The next step in the leaf mimic experiment could be to test if it mimics leaves that are themselves mimics. The imitation takes effort, it would be better not to if it's not needed.
Great job explaining the -ness of latent space we are uncovering in Ai and then applying it to something that captures the imagination. Squirrel!
My thoughts exactly. Its all about understanding. Reality is like connect the dots.
Mind blowing! 😮🎉only if used for a "higher purpose" & overcoming speciesism 🎉
Sadly there are many cultures in the world that simply won't care.
If this research can progress to understanding what our home pets are thinking or asking for it will be so fantastic…!
Wonderful.
He has not yet said anything about the area of
communication between social animals such
as ants and bees, which I find very fascinating.
Are there any videos out on this topic you know of ?
@@Jichael.macksonmanyyy, look up collective intelligence of ants / bees
I myself have discussed this extensively with ChatGPT.
In a way where I incorporated chatgpt into a fictional
research group in conversation.
And we played various situations together where I talked
to a colony of ants about various topics with the help
of the 'translator' Chatgpt.
But keep in mind that this was only through chatting
with Chatgpt.
So no field work with researchers etc.@@Jichael.mackson
There is a book called “The uplift wars” by David Brin about aliens who judge a speices by how many other creatures they “uplift” to consciousness-this is like the book coming to life! Wow!
When people ask, "do you think that are we alone in the Universe" I always point out that we are not even alone on earth. This kind of research is not only 'jaw-dropping' but is essential for us to gain some objectivity about the human condition, and has so much potential to tell us about the nature of our world and our origins. It makes me so angry to think that projects like this one are not placed in the forefront of research.. give them the whole defence budget for God's sake.
maybe it's better this way, if the wrong ppl take over they will patent and sell it as a subscription lol
totally agree
At 4:51, the statement 'Our ability to understand is limited by our ability to perceive' reminded me of a book I recently read. 'An Immense World' by Pulitzer-prize winning author Ed Yong is an exploration into 'How Animal Senses Reveal The Hidden Realms Around Us'. Enlightening and entertaining.
i can't believe i haveNt thought of this inevitable result of bulk data analysis by an ai
This was magical. Thank you.
I wonder what bees are saying! Yes! The future is terrifying and rad! And I want to know what my cats are saying.
I think within 10 years we might invent the translation collar. It might make people really annoyed by their pets though as many will not be that intelligent. We might also discover that cows carry infinite wisdom, so.... yeah.
Fascinating times we live in!@@muchomacho79
Now I can annoy my friend who didn't believe me when I said talking to plants helps them grow! And yes, I have been known to hug trees and talk to animals.
This will change mankind forever I cannot wait until the project is fully underway. I wonder if the animals know that we did this to the earth and they are blaming us?
How can they not… or maybe they are more evolved than using blame and might enlighten us… I damn well hope so because we are foul selfish creatures who are killing the planet 🌍 and all creatures including us that live in it.
This presentation made me so happy but also worried what we can find out from animals and what they will learn from us.
Its only frustrating that unless science proves it, the whole idea is ridiculed endlessly, even if its been part of a culture for centuries.
But thank goodness this is being done!! Maybe we'll see the world for the priceless mystery it is.. jk probably not, sadly.
Soon we can apologize to trees for cutting off communication.
That's because people who need the church fathers of science to tell them what is true or real are NPCs
Amazing work. The possibilities are incredible.
The activist comedian isn't funny? Imagine that.
For anyone who is interested:
if plants emit up to 60khz sounds then by the nyquist theorem of signal sampling we need > 120khz recordings to record their sounds with no loss of information
also, typical microphones for consumer use only have "frequency response" between 20 and 20000 hertz because this is what we agree the range of human hearing is, anything outside of that range sounds like silence. so if you wanted to record a plant noise, your microphone would not even resonate at that frequency.
I don't know how to find a device like this, but if you want to record a plant, you should get a 192khz sampling rate microphone with a frequency response between 20khz and 95khz... Good Luck.. I kind of want one of those items.
Assuming that plant talk is not malarkey, we should find out what surfaces the plants use to emit and receive sounds, because those surfaces may be good to use as resonators for our purposes of measuring the signals
with belugas speaking at 150 khz im wondering if there needs to be a better way to store their audio that doesn't get ridiculously dense, because I think it's kind of absurd to store 384 khz signal
Extraordinary presentation and work by you and your team. Stunning.
Together
Everyone
Achieves
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The implications on humanity’s actions and behaviors is staggering. Ego clipping alone may save us from the great filter slowly being draped over our future. Finally, intelligent life found here on earth and together these elder species will guide the way.
Fantastic! Speaking of human ego, I can already predict the response from irrational minds when the first breakthroughs are announced: "That's NOT an animal speaking! That is a devil trying to fool us! This research MUST stop immideatly! Unfortunatly this is such a major leap in our woeld-concept and paradigm that many minds won't be able to digest it. Cope with the shift, if you so will. I think this leap has to be announced very carefully and gradually (Very unfortunate since I can barely wait to learn whet new insights into this have been discovered). Such a relief to learn about something this fascinating amidst all the chaos slowly taking over half of the world today.
Yes, we have dreamed of this day...
From a person who loves animals, and our planet. I look forward to the day this research allows humans to explore other worlds with our earthmates from the animals kingdom to serve as ambassadors of their species.
We can all find a better cleaner place to coexist, and with the knowledge we have gained here, do a better job of planetary stuartship.
that humpback who was hearing its name was freaked TF out and noped out of there when the communication stopped
Watched 49:36 and felt like it was 10min long 😮 Great content!
Wow, an opportunity to reflect on ourselves as others (not of us) might see us. It is revolutionary (very valuable) to have an objective observer perspective to shine a light on our assumptions and perhaps pop some bubbles. We may discover we aren't mad after all? All we need to do is get those in charge to listen too.
Part of the issue is that other Eukaryotes do NOT live in the same world that we do. Orcas likely do not have a word for hand or horse or money or state. These are likely foreign concepts. They also likely have words for concepts that we don't. There might be things like "false seafloor moving up and down" as a single concept.
There is so much to cover here... Objectivity, subjectivity, the quantum realm of probability, the vastness of time, how universal biology manifests all of this and the deviations contained within each universe. I've contemplated these topics at a holistic level for what feels like an eternity now. As infinite sets go, this is a wild and weird place to ponder, ever changing in speed and complexity. I feel like Aza and I will cross paths one day. AI can only take us so far in that it digest current information and discovers symbolic relaionship but is limited and bound to the context of universal limitations. There is a higher power here that defies those constraints and from nothingness comes forth a multifaceted multidimensional construct beyond our comprehension all in tune to his ESP. The language of truth.
I am in tears following his conclusions here❤
What a great presentation and fascinating subject matter. Captivating.
Excellent presentation and another incentive to understand our brothers in life!
I'm here in the first few minutes and just the fact that that dude popping up the people that contribute to his talk is a nice thing to see. So many times I see these amazing talks I do some research and I find out that the person give me a talk had virtually nothing to do with what they talked about and that behind them is some really great figure that wasn't even mentioned or was one of the many that was not specifically mentioned but more integral to the talk than what the speaker may have given from my perspective. Credit where credit is due. You rock man
I fear AI for all of the known reasons but this is the most exciting thing I’ve heard in my life.
its absolutely crazy what A.I can do and its not even yet AGI
"Hey buddy, you're being a real fruiting body right now," is a line I was inspired to write by your introduction, as a euphemism to use against people who are being d****s.
Most excellent video, man. Thank you very much.
I imagine a time when we first get to ask our brother and sister whales, or elephants, or dolphins, what they know or believe about our universe, and life's place within it.🤯
Not far away now! Blows my mind, and I pray that I can hang on long enough to see the results of this and many other discoveries that finally have the opportunity to be answered¡!
What a KICK ASS time to be alive!!
I think that I chose this time and place to be reborn into, even with all the hardships, just so I can witness the epic thing's happening during this time.
Thing's like First Contact, Human/Animal language barrier toppled, What is the Universe, and the greatest mystery of them ALL.....LIFE....AFTER DEATH!!😏🤘🤙✌️🇺🇸
Thank you so much for your research and the way you are articulating this amazing potential exploration. Bless you 🙏🏽