Could AI translate animal sounds into words? Tech experts hope so

A Chinese tech company has revealed it is exploring whether it is possible to use AI to translate animal sounds into human language.

Baidu, the owner of China’s largest search engine, has filed a patent with the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

The plans were revealed in a patent document published this week.

The patent is for a system that collects animal data like vocal sounds, behaviour and physiological signals. It would then be processed and merged, before an AI-powered analysis designed to recognise the animal’s emotional state.

Those emotional states could then be translated into human language and could improve “the accuracy and efficiency of cross-species communication”, according to Baidu in the document.

The translator is “still in the research stage”, according to a Baidu spokesperson who said there had been a “lot of interest in the filing”.

Although animal translation has long fascinated humans, technological advances have made it seem more possible recently.

Videos on social media frequently go viral of dogs appearing to use buttons on hexagonal mats, known as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) boards, to communicate with their owners.

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Whether these dogs are actually communicating is the subject of much discussion and scientists at UC San Diego are running a study on 2,000 dogs to try and settle the debate.

Baidu’s new technique of leveraging AI could offer a new option to understand pets, but some on Chinese social media remain unconvinced.

“While it sounds impressive, we’ll need to see how it performs in real-world applications,” commented one user on Weibo.