Project CETI has partnered with New York University School of Law’s “More Than Human Life” Project (MOTH) for an exciting new endeavor to explore the legal opportunities and risks of AI-assisted translations of the language of whales and other species. The MOTH Project is an initiative working to bridge the gap between human and non-human rights and well-being. MOTH puts an emphasis on evaluating the traditional approach to ecological advocacy: that a categorical distinction between human and non-human affairs is fundamentally inequitable. As the team at CETI has begun to find pathways toward understanding non-human language, the needs of these other species and their urgency can be better conceived through this collaboration.
From the beginning, the CETI team has maintained the founding goal of successfully listening to non-human species. Our team's advancements in data collection and processing have made significant steps towards uncovering the potential keys to understanding what sperm whales might be saying to one another. While some legal frameworks recognize non-human species as subjects, humans understanding an animal language opens the door to non-human participation in these discussions. For this reason, Project CETI and the NYU MOTH Project are excited to collaborate on this unique and creative perspective on interspecies legal principles.
Combining the scientific findings of CETI with MOTH's goals of legal protection for the more-than-human world, this partnership opens the door for brand new policy and discourse for global advocacy.
Stay tuned for more updates on this collaboration as we consider a world with interspecies communication.
For more information see the MOTH's blog on our partnership, "Listening to the More-Than-Human World: Ethical Principles for and Applications of Interspecies Communication", and visit their website: NYU MOTH Project.