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Funders say AI could enable two-way animal communication before 2030, as a $10 million prize and playback risks collide

September 6, 2026 at 18:49 EDT

Foundation Models
Research & Papers
Policy & Regulation

Researchers and a major prize sponsor say artificial intelligence could enable two-way communication with animals before 2030, even as field biologists warn that synthetic playback of animal voices could scramble real social bonds.

September 2026 · Coller Dolittle Challenge

Talking back to animals before 2030?

Funders say AI could enable two-way interspecies communication this decade. A $10 million grand prize is still unclaimed, and biologists warn that synthetic calls can scramble real animal societies.

2030

Year Jeremy Coller says the code can be cracked

$10M

Grand prize equity, or $500k cash, if an animal does not detect a human

60%

Carrion crow calls that are soft, close-range murmurs

127k+

Crow vocalizations detected with Earth Species Project tools

Mapped call-type vocabularies

Same unit: core call types identified in recent studies. Column height matches the count.

African striped mouse squeak types

Zebra finch core calls (2026 prize)

Chimpanzee call types in a long-term corpus

How the two-way test is supposed to work

Record giant wild and captive call datasets

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Train audio models on those calls

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Elicit a measurable response in more than one context

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Pass if the animal does not detect a human

Case for talking back

Decoding calls could increase compassion for wildlife, livestock and pets, and help protect habitats without invasive tests.

Case for restraint

Repeated playback can act like a deepfake of an animal’s voice, until its group ignores the real caller. Privacy, tourism and capture risks remain.

Unclaimed bar

The Grand Prize is still open. Two-way contact must use the animal’s own signals, stay non-invasive, and leave the animal unaware that a human is behind the voice.

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