- Led by Dr Delphine Grass, Lancaster University, in collaboration with New York University.
As AI systems increasingly promise to translate animal communications into human language, this project examines the profound ethical implications for biodiversity conservation, AI development and more-than-human relations.
Our interdisciplinary research analyses AI animal translation technologies through translation studies’ ethical and creative frameworks, revealing how these systems shape rather than simply convey meaning across species boundaries. Bringing together researchers from translation studies, animal behaviour science, politics, literature, history, and digital studies, we will combine humanities and art-led methods with empirical research to critically investigate the future of interspecies communication in the context of AI. Working with marine conservation partners, we study whether these emerging technologies genuinely serve environmental justice goals, or risk reinforcing anthropocentric biases which undermine sustainable planetary relations.
Image credit: Lone Thomasky & Bits&Bäume / Distorted Fish School / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0
