Communication is ubiquitous across the tree of life. It’s time we start listening.
Learn about who we are and why we believe listening across species matters.
Interspecies Internet (IIO) is a 501(c)(3) charity and a multidisciplinary forum to advance interspecies communication towards conservation and understanding, with 11500+ members and affiliates, including leading sector professionals.
We facilitate tool-building, share research, and host global conversations that challenge anthropocentric thinking and center diverse forms of cognition.
Our story
Founded by Dr. Vint Cerf (Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google and co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet), Peter Gabriel (musician and humanitarian activist), Dr. Neil Gershenfeld (professor at MIT and Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms), and Dr. Diana Reiss (cognitive psychologist, marine mammal scientist, and professor and Director of the Animal Behavior and Conservation Graduate Programs at Hunter College, CUNY).
New forms of knowledge emerge at the intersection of different fields: when computer scientists work with biologists, artists engage with AI researchers, or linguists collaborate with ethologists. These intellectual partnerships expand the scope of what’s possible at the crossroads of science, engineering, language, philosophy, ethics and law.
So, while the proposition of an interspecies internet seems like one lifted from the pages of a science fiction novel, it is in fact rooted in a rich history of real-world inquiry spanning animal communication, bioacoustics, behavioral ecology, animal cognition, conservation, neurobiology, philosophy, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.
The internet was initially designed as a system to connect computers, quickly came to be used to connect humans instead—a shift which unlocked remarkable and unforeseen impacts. An interspecies internet is inspired by this potential. It envisions the evolution of a shared interactive and sensory environment for planetary connectivity that opens new windows into the minds of animals and encourages our commitment to valuing and conserving the biodiversity of life and cognition.
Since presenting the idea to the public in 2013, the intention remains the same: that the windows we open into the minds of animals may encourage commitment to valuing and conserving life’s biodiversity and its manifold domains of cognition.
From Science Fiction to Global Movement
Interspecies Internet is here to encourage, explore and facilitate interfaces for interspecies communication and approaches for deciphering the communication of non-human animals.
We connect multidisciplinary groups, driving collaboration within the field by:
Tooling: Technology and Deployment
Equipping: Education and Resources
Connecting: Discourse Development and Public Engagement
Interspecies Internet garnered substantial attention with the presentation of their 2013 TED talk An Interspecies Internet? An Idea In Progress. In July of 2019, MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, Google, and the Jeremy Coller Foundation co-hosted the first Interspecies Internet workshop, gathering a community working in this and related fields to review progress, present relevant research and plan future activities. The invitation-only event was the first in-person launch of the initiative and was attended at maximum capacity. The day saw introductions from Jane Goodall and lightning talks from leading scientists.
“Harnessing technology to facilitate communication with other animals and helping us decode the myriad forms of communication used by other species is a challenge that both befits humanity and benefits us in the long run.”
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