The prize was launched in 2024 by the Jeremy Coller Foundation, which promotes awareness of animal welfare and animal sentience, in partnership with Tel Aviv University. Beyond the annual prizes for progress, the foundation has established a $10m grand prize for cracking the problem of two-way human-animal communication.<\/p>\n
Elie decided to study zebra finches because they are so vocal \u2013 meaning they produce plenty of data. \u201cThe question I asked myself when hearing these chatty songbirds was what are they saying?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For more than a decade, Elie observed and recorded the sounds the birds made and classified the calls according to the situation and the bird that made them. She then used machine learning to analyse what and how information was encoded in the calls. Finally, she ran tests that showed the birds agreed with her classification.<\/p>\n
In one test, zebra finches were played various calls from their repertoire when they tapped a button. Some calls were followed by a reward of some seeds. As the test went on, the birds learned to tap the button to skip unrewarding calls. It\u2019s similar to scrolling videos on social media, Elie said, moving on when the start of the video looks dull.<\/p>\n
The birds occasionally made mistakes, but when that happened, they often confused calls that had the same meaning rather than the same sound. \u201cTheir responses indicated they have a mental imagery of the meaning of their vocalisations,\u201d Elie said. \u201cIn other words, that they understand the meaning of their call types.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics, who was on the judging panel, said Elie had done \u201cabsolutely phenomenal work\u201d for more than 15 years, \u201cnot just building up a dictionary of the 11 \u2018core words\u2019 of the zebra finch\u2019s vocabulary, but also asking the finches themselves, through ingenious experimental techniques, whether she\u2019s got the meanings right. It\u2019s a stunning example of how to move rigorously from recording thousands of calls to understanding their meanings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other scientists shortlisted for the prize included a French team that showed how African striped mice reveal their identity through ultrasonic squeaks; a Swiss-US team that found bonobos combine their calls into sequences that resemble human sentences; and another French team that worked with researchers in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire to understand chimpanzee hoos and yelps.<\/p>\n Advances in artificial intelligence are transforming hopes that humans could one day communicate with animals in a coherent and meaningful way. Armed with machine learning algorithms, researchers are deciphering how animal calls convey meaning. But there is a long way to go to reach back and forth communication, Yovel said.<\/p>\n Jeremy Coller, the British billionaire financier behind the prize, was more optimistic. \u201cI\u2019m convinced this is now inevitable,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s inevitable because AI is accelerating so fast. I have absolute conviction we will crack the code by 2030, a breakthrough that will benefit humans and our fellow animals the world over.\u201d<\/p>\n