The Animal Translators

The field is young and many projects are still in their infancy; humanity is not on the verge of having a Rosetta Stone for whale songs or the ability to chew the fat with cats. But the work is already revealing that animal communication is far more complex than it sounds to the human ear, and the chatter is providing a richer view of the world beyond our own species. "I find it really intriguing that machines might help us to feel closer to animate life, that artificial intelligences might help us to notice biological intelligences," said Tom Mustill, a wildlife and science filmmaker and the author of the forthcoming book, "How to Speak Whale." "This is like we've invented a telescope -- a new tool that allows us to perceive what was already there but we couldn't see before." Studies of animal communication are not new, but machine-learning algorithms can spot subtle patterns that might elude human listeners.