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Can we build a Dolittle Machine, a piece of technology that will let us converse with the animals of planet Earth? Science fiction writer Matthew De Abaitua investigates how the latest advances in AI mean that this is now more in the realms of the possible, rather than in the purely fantastical.

Starting in his garden with two cats, he finds himself in a tropical forest with big-brained hook-wielding birds, surveying multidimensional neural networks, and meets a woman who found out about her pregnancy from a dolphin. There are also robotic fish and sound pictures painted at high speed by fruit bats.

What is Matthew’s machine going to look like, how will it operate, and what will we learn from it all?

Featuring:
Linda Erb, vice president of animal care and training, Dolphin Research Center, Florida.
Martha Nussbaum, professor of law and philosophy, University of Chicago.
Diana Reiss, professor, Department of Psychology, Hunter College.
Daniela Rus, roboticist, professor and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, MIT.
Natalie Uomini, researcher into New Caledonian crows and animal intelligence.
Yossi Yovel, professor, Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University.

Extracts from ‘Songs of the Humpback Whale’ used with permission from Ocean Alliance.
Sperm whale sounds courtesy of Project CETI.

Presenter: Matthew De Abaitua
Producer: Richard Ward
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for Radio 4