Could AI translate animal brain waves and decode animal language?
? Now, thanks to artificial intelligence, scientists are taking the first real steps towards making it happen.
Can AI really decode animal language?
Researchers around the world are training AI to analyse the clicks, whistles, and calls of animals. Unlike human languages, animal communication doesn’t come with a dictionary. But powerful algorithms can sift through thousands of hours of recordings and behaviours to spot hidden patterns.
Exactly how scientists are trying to “talk” to animals
1. Talking to Whales – Project CETI
Researchers working with sperm whales use arrays of underwater microphones to capture their rapid “codas” (clicking patterns). AI models then compare thousands of hours of recordings with observed whale behaviour, such as feeding, socialising, danger, or play. By clustering these codas into categories, AI starts to map which sounds correspond to which activities.
Early findings suggest whales may use combinatorial communication—building “phrases” by stringing clicks together, like words in sentences.
2. Talking to Dolphins and the Coller-Dolittle Prize winners
Scientists tracked dolphins in open water with hydrophones (underwater microphones) and drones.
They matched whistle types to specific behaviours: short bursts when startled, or long, looping whistles when reuniting. Machine-learning systems confirmed the categories and even picked up subtle variations humans couldn’t hear. This earned the team a $100,000 award in 2025.
The Coller Dolittle prize is a multi-year challenge with an annual prize recognizing significant scientific research that supports the aim of Interspecies Communication.
3. Talking to birds – Unsupervised AI translation
With songbirds, researchers feed recordings into AI systems similar to those used for Google Translate.
The algorithm doesn’t “understand” words but looks for mathematical structures, how sounds are repeated, sequenced, or combined. It then overlays those structures against human language patterns to guess how “units” of sound may function like words or grammar.
4. Talking to mice – Stanford University
Instead of sound, Stanford scientists use optical sensors and lasers to track brain waves moving through different neuron types. They can see in real time how the brain responds to stimuli—such as light, food, or threats.
These brain-wave “signatures” could one day be paired with AI language models to create a dictionary of thought patterns.
5. EEG-to-text in humans – stepping stone for talking to animals
In 2024–25, researchers trained deep-learning models on EEG (electroencephalogram) data from people asked to think specific words or sentences. The AI translated the brain waves into text with surprising accuracy.
If a similar approach is developed for animals—say, recording EEGs while observing what a dog sees or does—it could begin linking brain activity directly to meanings.
6. Baidu’s multi-signal patent to decode animal language?
China’s Baidu filed a patent for an AI system that combines sounds, behaviour, and physiological signals (like heart rate or movement).
The idea is to process all these inputs together, then output a probable “translation”—for example:
- Bark + wagging tail + relaxed heartbeat = “I’m happy.”
- Whine + pawing + tense heartbeat = “I’m anxious.”
These examples show that scientists aren’t just listening to sounds—they’re combining audio, behaviour, and brain activity to triangulate meaning, with AI doing the heavy lifting.
Seacows of love are go!
Sea cows—manatees and dugongs—communicate with squeaks, whistles, and chirps. Their voices differ from ours, but their throat structures share some similarities. Could they speak more than they let on? For now, they remain quiet keepers of the sea, leaving us to wonder whether their silence is nature—or a choice.
Can we talk to animals? The challenges and ethical questions
Despite these advances, there are big hurdles.
- Data: AI needs massive datasets to learn, and recording decades of animal behaviour is slow.
- Meaning vs. translation: Decoding signals doesn’t guarantee we understand the animal’s true experience.
- Ethics: Some worry this technology could be used to exploit animals in factory farming or entertainment, rather than protect them.
When Can we talk to animals? The future of interspecies communication
Right now, we are at the beginning of a new frontier. Within the next decade, AI may allow us to ask a whale what it’s singing about, or finally understand what our pets feel when they stare at us.
So, the dream of Dr Dolittle might not be fantasy for much longer—it could become the next leap in human empathy and science.
The big question is: should we use this power to control animals—or to respect and protect them?
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