The UPF Centre for Animal Ethics (UPF-CAE) is pleased to invite you to the Seminar: “Decoding” Nonhuman Animal Communication with Artificial Intelligence, by Caatje Kluskens, from Wageningen University and visiting researcher at UPF-CAE.

Data: Monday, 6 July
Schedule:  17:00 
Location: Sala En Construcció - 54. Àrea Tallers building - Campus Poblenou (UPF)

In recent years, a number of research initiatives have begun using machine learning to analyze nonhuman animal vocalizations at a large scale. Projects like the Cetacean Translation Initiative and the Earth Species Project are attempting to detect patterns in nonhuman animal communication, with the ambition of eventually decoding what other animals are saying to each other. These developments are presented as a potential breakthrough in how humans understand and relate to other species, and have attracted significant public and media attention.
In this talk, Caatje Kluskens, PhD candidate in the Philosophy Group at Wageningen University and visiting researcher at UPF-CAE discusses current AI for nonhuman animal communication projects, the epistemic debates surrounding them, and the broader question of what it might mean to listen to nonhuman animal voices.
The talk proposes that the technology is most valuable for the questions it forces us to ask about language, intelligence, and the moral consideration of other animals. Those questions, however, do not emerge and circulate independently. The extent to which AI for nonhuman animal communication can function as a site of inquiry depends on whether it is represented as one. The responsible media representation of the technology is therefore not an afterthought, but a condition for any meaningful outcome for nonhuman animals.

Everyone is welcome to attend!