On June 29 and 30th, Project CETI co-hosted the Decoding Communication in Non-Human Species III workshop with the Simon’s Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley.
The CETI/Simons Decoding Communication in Non-Human Species workshop series is inspired by the Dartmouth Workshop of 1956, and is a convening space for the growing community of researchers working in the field of decoding non-human communication. Experts from a variety of disciplines presented on the latest advancements, spanning topics from dolphin and sperm whale communication, symbolic behavior, child development, emergent communication, foundational models applied to graphs and to identifying (and re-identifying) marine species, linguistics and plant bioacoustics.
Presentations such as Chiara Semenzin’s (École Normale Supérieure) “Whistle variability and social acoustic interactions in bottlenose dolphins” and Lilach Hadany’s (Tel-Aviv University),“Bioacoustics of Plants” highlighted the depth and breadth of non-human communication projects. These projects, alongside others presented, showcased the wide array of communication patterns across non-human species and the new insights that can be gleaned when combining bioacoustics with advanced machine learning. These talks highlighted how the application of these new tools is leading to a better understanding of complex communication systems across the tree of life.
Gasper Begus’ (UC Berkeley/CETI) presentation, “AI as a tool for discovery in animal communication”, focused on artificial general intelligence and breakthroughs that have resulted in animal linguistics from applications of this technology. Similarly, Jason Holmberg and Lasha Otarashvili’s presentation (Conservation X Labs) “Faces, Flukes, Fins, and Flanks: How Multispecies Re-ID Models are Transforming Our Approach to AI” showed how technology has been helpful in categorizing and identifying specific animals for marine conservation efforts, but noted the limitations of current mono-functional models.
The presentations shown at the conference underscore the growth of this interdisciplinary and emerging field. As this field continues to develop, efforts to decode non-human communication will not only teach us more about the world around us, but spark new ways for humans to better protect the natural world.
For more information about Decoding Communication in Nonhuman Species III, please find videos of all of the presentations here.