You may think you know your pet, but what if they could actually talk to you? Well, veterinarian Dr Jess French thinks we could be understanding animals sooner than expected and that it could be “one of the biggest and most exciting technological advances in the next few decades.”
Speaking to BBC Science Focus at the Cheltenham Science Festival, French explained how humans prioritise visual stimulus in communication, whereas many other animals rely on smell and sound. If we were to train an AI using thousands of available data points and hours of footage of animal interactions, it may be able to understand these types of communication better than we ever could.