Can AI Help Us Talk to Animals? | Aza Raskin (Ep. 11)

Mar 4, 2025

01:16:05

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In this Life with Machines episode, Baratunde Thurston talks with Aza Raskin about something straight out of science fiction—teaching AI to communicate with animals. As co-founder of the Earth Species Project, Aza is working on technology that could let us listen to whales, understand what elephants are saying, and maybe even talk back. This isn’t just about decoding nature’s languages—it’s about rethinking intelligence, communication, and our place in the world. Aza and Baratunde get into the ethics, the mind-blowing implications, and whether we’re about to make first contact… without ever leaving Earth. Plus, BLAIR, the show’s AI co-producer, chimes in—adding its own perspective to this conversation about intelligence, language, and what it means to truly understand.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:07 Meet Aza Raskin: Pioneer of Interspecies Communication

11:06 The Earth Species Project: Decoding Animal Language

17:19 AI and the Shape of Language

28:17 The Ethical Implications of Interspecies Communication

32:39 Digital Twins

39:11 Guess the Animal Sound

45:36 Rights of Nature and Indigenous Perspectives

48:47 Funding and Team Expansion

50:55 The Viral Songs of Humpback Whales