The Download: inside animals' minds, and how to make AI agents useful

Studying the minds of other animals comes with a challenge that human psychologists don't usually face: Your subjects can't tell you what they're thinking. To get answers from animals, scientists need to come up with creative experiments to learn why they behave the way they do. Sometimes this requires designing and building experimental equipment from scratch. These contraptions can range from ingeniously simple to incredibly complex, but all of them are tailored to help answer questions about the lives and minds of specific species. Do honeybees need a good night's sleep? What do jumping spiders find sexy?