Hey AI: what do my dog’s barks mean?

Researchers believe AI-powered language tools could be turned from human to chat to deciphering dog barks. Animal lover Nicole Kobie reveals all

Woof, woof. You stare at your dog’s fluffy face and wonder two things: what does she want, and how do I make her stop? AI researchers are working on a way to answer that first question so you can then figure out the second, following a grand tradition of attempting to unpick what our pets are trying to say to us. In 2002, Japanese company Takeda launched the BowLingual dog translator (tinyurl.com/361bowlingual), followed by the Meowlingual version for feline friends. By listening to the sounds your pets were making, this $75 device would supposedly reveal its mood via an onscreen display and a short phrase (think “I’m hungry”). It was awarded that year’s satirical Ig Nobel prize, but animal translation using AI has attracted real academic attention. A project called Zoolingua is…

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PC Pro (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2024

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