What if animals communicate with each other in entire conversations that we do not understand? For decades, researchers studying animal communication have documented sounds, gestures, and behaviors that hint at something far more complex than instinct or reaction.
In the 1980s, a simple observation of African elephants sparked a question that would take years of patient study and a revolution in artificial intelligence to even begin to answer: could animals be calling each other by name? This question sits at the heart of a larger, growing scientific movement that explores the untapped, often unnoticed complexity of animal communication.
With the rise of machine learning and large language models, researchers are poised to go deeper than ever before, aiming to build bridges between species. What discoveries are there to be found in the world of animal language? And how can AI help along the way? Click through this gallery to find out.