Of all the things to be afraid of in the world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be getting a lot of press these days. Tucked away in all the noise and fear mongering I saw an interesting article about the positive side of AI and some of the abilities it will soon have. According to some, we are getting very close to having real conversations with other species. The claim is that with enough data, and a powerful enough computer we will be able to understand and mimic the language of some animals.
Now the article I read mentioned whales specifically, and I suppose they could tell us a lot about the history of the planet and facts about the ocean since they’ve been around for some time, but I started to wonder what the animals closest to us would say. Imagine if you could explain to your dog in detail why it’s not nice to go to the bathroom on the rug. Or maybe your dog could finally answer the long-standing question, “Who’s a good boy?” 
Chatting it up with your pets certainly could be fun, but I’m sure they might have some questions for us. And while it’s said that on average dogs have the intelligence of a toddler. Do we really want to talk to toddlers that much? Imagine repeatedly explaining to your dog why barking at the garbage truck doesn’t make it stop, and despite the fact that you have your leash in your mouth, we can’t go for a walk every time I go out the door. And I don’t even want to think about what my cat would have to say to me. No one can handle that kind of judgement!
When you really think about it, deep conversations with other species could be difficult for a whole lot of reasons. AI might be close to figuring this out, but I’m not sure I’m ready. In the meantime, I think I'll go look for the leash as Sam has been a good boy and deserves a walk.
What we know about animal communications
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