AI Secrets is your weekly update on how AI is changing our everyday lives. Our experts will keep it clear and simple, so you can stay ahead of the game. This week we are focussing on talking to the animals.Share this with anyone you want to keep up to date.
Like AI Bridge Over Troubled Waters? ⛵ 👮
Existential threats to humanity are everywhere you look these days, but for once we can focus on one that AI seems likely to solve, rather than exacerbate. There’s been a sudden and inexplicable spate of killer whale attacks on recreational boats in recent years; a phenomenon that began with unruly orcas ripping rudders from pleasure craft off the coast of Spain.
The slippery miscreants responsible for this new craze are not a large group; scientists estimate that it could be as few as 15 orcas who are behind the bulk of the attacks. The first recorded incident occurred in May of 2020, and there since have been over 500 reports of orca attacks on boats off the Iberian coast. Three boats have been sunk so far this year, and the phenomenon is spreading around the Atlantic, with an attack last week in the North Sea, and increased sightings of orca pods on the US Atlantic coast.
Speculation about the causes is rife, but answers are most likely to come from the field of bioacoustics. Researchers have been studying the sounds of the animal kingdom for centuries, but recent developments in AI have accelerated that research dramatically. Academics such as the University of British Columbia’s Karen Bakker are leading the charge, highlighting remarkable audio in the animal kingdom; these range from discoveries of new species - discovered through AI analysis of their unique voice signatures - to preventative conservation efforts. This has already seen tremendous results, with the creation of mobile marine protection areas (MMPAs) to protect pods of whales who had been driven from their usual feeding grounds off the Californian coast, and into busy shipping lanes. AI analysis helps predict where the pods will go next, and ship strikes are now a thing of the past.
Solving the orca problem will prove trickier, but bioacousticians are using AI to do more than just predict movement, and the good news is that the Dr. Dolittle dream of talking to the animals is now much closer, thanks to the analytical power of AI systems. Enormous strides are being made in decoding the languages of animals, and the hope is that it won’t be long before we’re not only able to understand what they want, but also ask them how we can help… although, as Dr. Bakker notes, we may not like the answers!
While we wait on the neural ‘petworks’ that will enable us to finally explain who’s a good boy (and who isn’t), why not take a look through our selection of 10 of the most mind-blowing AI-powered games for beginners?
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Canadian academics have struck a blow in the ongoing Voice Race; successfully spoofing authentication systems using AI-generated voices. Remember, your voice is not your password!
An academic study has confirmed that people not only cannot tell the difference between AI-generated tweets and those written by humans, but are more likely to trust the AI’s output.
The Vatican has released a handbook of guidelines on how to navigate the choppy ethical waters of AI usage, but is keeping very quiet on the possibility of LLMs sparking Armageddon.
Glastonbury icon Paul McCartney has - very gently of course! - pushed back at critics who are unhappy with his use of AI to restore long-lost John Lennon vocals for an upcoming new Beatles release.
Struggling to learn how to make computers think? AI researchers are now trying to make them forget, hence Google launching the first Machine Unlearning Challenge to help combat privacy issues plaguing the AI world.
The Verge’s James Vincent posts a fascinating look at the current state and immediate future of the World Wide Web as it buckles under the fresh weight of low-cost, low-quality AI-generated cruft.
