with Marriah Alcantara and Kristin Andrews
21 November 2026, 17:00 GMT/ 12:00 EDT/ 09:00 PDT
Listening to animals: Are we ready to hear what they have to say?
Projects that aim to use machine learning to uncover the meaning of animal signals have the potential to transform how humans and animals engage with one another.
In this talk, Kristin Andrews and Marriah Alcantara will examine the research ethics that should govern the use of machine learning to uncover the meaning of animal signals and explore the transformative implications if scientists are successful in creating translations between animal signals and human language. While the ability to translate animal signals has many possible benefits, these come alongside no small number of risks to animal communities. They enumerate the risks involved in the development of these models in order to help scientists avoid them.
Looking ahead, they argue that successful two-way communication with animals would both reveal an existing moral landscape and create a new one. Any successful two-way communication system would require the radical translation of animal signals, which in turn entails that animals are rational beings who live in normative communities. Furthermore, the creation of these communicative systems also gives rise to new responsibilities and demands. As researchers work to transform our social relationships with animals, they must also take on the responsibility of preparing humanity for the challenges that will arise in this novel multispecies landscape.
About the Speakers
Kristin Andrews is a philosopher and author of books that explore animal minds, sociality, and culture. Kristin is Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University in Toronto (on leave), and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Fellow in the Future Flourishing project. She has been active in animal policy and conservation contexts, including co-launching the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness and promoting orangutan research and conservation in Indonesian Borneo.
Marriah Alcantara is a PhD candidate in philosophy at York University. Before coming to philosophy, Marriah studied animal biology, a background which informs her research by facilitating an interdisciplinary approach to the philosophy of science. Her doctoral research is on the complexity of the social lives of nonhuman animals, and asks how this complexity should inform human-animal interactions. Current projects include looking at how we should understand an animal’s right to privacy, whether animals engage in social practices like gender, and how we should approach using AI to communicate with animals.
