AI Aims to Decode Animal Sounds Using Advanced Language Models

For centuries, humans have wondered whether animals communicate in ways that resemble human language. Do whales share complex stories through their songs? Do crows use specific calls to identify one another? Do frogs change their vocalizations depending on the season? While traditional biology has provided some insights, recent advances in artificial intelligence are opening new doors to understanding animal communication. One of the most prominent initiatives in this field is the Earth Species Project (ESP), a nonprofit organization using AI to decode nonhuman communication. ESP takes a modern, AI-first approach, leveraging large-scale machine learning models and multimodal data—such as audio, video, and environmental context—to analyze animal signals with unprecedented precision. The project aims to build open-source tools that can detect patterns in animal vocalizations, identify individual callers, and even infer intent or emotional states. By training AI on vast datasets of animal sounds recorded across species and environments, researchers hope to uncover hidden structures in animal communication—potentially revealing systems of meaning that have long gone unnoticed. Early results are promising. AI has already demonstrated the ability to distinguish between different types of calls in species like bottlenose dolphins, African elephants, and even insects. In some cases, the models have identified subtle variations in calls that correlate with specific behaviors, such as alarm signals, mating rituals, or social bonding. This work builds on a long-standing curiosity about animal language, famously captured in stories like Hugh Lofting’s The Story of Doctor Doolittle, where a doctor learns to understand animals through their vocalizations. While real-world science may not yet allow us to hold full conversations with animals, AI is bringing us closer to interpreting their world. Researchers stress that the goal isn’t to anthropomorphize animals but to understand their communication on its own terms. As AI continues to evolve, it could revolutionize not only our understanding of animal behavior but also conservation efforts—by helping us detect changes in animal signals that might indicate stress, habitat loss, or population decline. Ultimately, this emerging field suggests that animals may not just be making sounds—they may be speaking, and AI might be the key to listening.