Projects
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In 2024, Interspecies Internet and the Santa Fe Institute jointly organized a workshop, with interest from the XPRIZE Foundationâs Conservation and Biodiversity team, titled Animals in Translation: Imagining Frameworks for Decoding Communication in Other Species.
During the two-day convening, a community of researchers developed a set of criteria that aimed to catalyze advancements in animal communication research and inspire initiatives like an XPRIZE competition, while fostering greater interspecies empathy and support for global animal welfare and conservation efforts.
Advances in this field could make significant contributions to our understanding of animals' rich inner lives and their communicative complexity, transforming human perspectives and strengthening cultural commitment to biodiversity and conservation.
We continue to work with XPRIZE, searching for potential funding avenues to bring this groundbreaking competition to life.
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In Progress: A shared platform and open-source approach to wildlife data collection and the development of modular, multi-species technologies for logging audio, movement, and environmental data.
This nascent collaboration focuses on how such tools might transform research, enable real-time interaction, and support conservation efforts: from monitoring behavior and detecting poaching to reducing human-wildlife conflict.
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Roger Payneâs groundbreaking album Songs of the Humpback Whale (1970) brought humpback whale songs to the public, sparking the global "Save the Whales" movement and influencing a moratorium on commercial whaling. Now, the Ocean Alliance is digitizing over 1,200 original tapes to preserve this historic audio for research and education.
Supported by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and others, the project ensures these iconic recordings remain accessible for future generations.
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Interspecies Internet is a participating organization in ARCANI (Accelerating Research Collaboration on Artificial and Natural Intelligences), an NSF-funded initiative that catalyzes intelligence research by connecting global networks studying both biological and artificial intelligences.
Other organizations of the network include: Diverse Intelligences, Santa Fe Institute, International Society for Artificial Life, Active AI, Scottish Primate Research Group, and Earth Species Project.
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MICO aims to transform animal language debates into empirical discussions, fostering greater appreciation for diverse animal intelligences by providing scientists with qualified participants and data for studying how dogs and cats develop communication skills across different contexts.
Operating as an independent entity within Interspecies Internet, MICO receives technological support from FluentPet and maintains academic affiliations with UC San Diego via CalIT2.
Interspecies Internet's Role:
Fiscal Sponsorship: Serving as a 501(c)3 to manage charitable gifts, donor acknowledgements, and financial reporting for MICO.
Governance: Ensuring ethical alignment and participating in scientific, operational, and ethics committees.
Support: Providing expertise and facilitating research partnerships.
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Interspecies Future: A Primer is the first comprehensive collection exploring interspecies communication through case studies, essays, scientific research summaries, and artists' texts. Published by LAS Art Foundation, it features over 60 contributions from leading artists, scientists, technologists, and philosophers, including our Executive Director Kate Armstrong, who introduced the chapter on âCommunicationâ.
The book envisions a future where humanity adopts a more planetary, empathetic approach to nonhumans, recognizing our shared interdependence. It incorporates technological and scientific advancements, new discoveries in nonhuman intelligence, posthuman theory, and Indigenous knowledge to promote beneficial interspecies relations for all living beings.
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Have a Project Idea?
If you're exploring interspecies communication â or simply curious about potential collaborations â weâre always open to conversation.
At Interspecies Internet, we connect people across science and art to exchange ideas and explore the mental lives of non-human animals.
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