Could we talk to animals?

What makes this fascinating

• Is it really language? — Whale song, bee dances, and prairie-dog calls carry information — but is any of it true language?

• Decoding with AI — Projects now record and analyze animal sounds at scale, hunting for grammar-like structure.

• The translation question — Even if we decode the signals, whether we could truly converse is unknown.

Frequently asked questions

Could we ever talk to animals?

Some species communicate in surprisingly rich ways — whale song, dolphin whistles, primate calls — and researchers are using AI to look for structure in it. Whether any of it amounts to language, and whether two-way conversation is possible, is unknown.

Do animals have language?

Animals clearly communicate, but whether any system has the open-ended, recursive, grammatical structure of human language is debated and unproven.

How is AI being used to decode animal communication?

Projects apply machine learning to large recordings of species like whales to detect recurring units and patterns, hoping to map meaning — early work, with no confirmed 'translation' yet.

More summits in Language & Linguistics

• The origin of language

  No other species has it. How did human language begin — and why only us?

• How children learn language

  Toddlers master grammar no one teaches them, from a sliver of data. How?

• Undeciphered scripts

  Ancient writing no one can read, like Linear A. Are these lost voices gone for good?