DeepSummary
In this podcast episode, Tristan Harris introduces Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Earth Species Project (ESP), which aims to use AI to decode and communicate with non-human animal species. Aza explains that within the next 12-36 months, they may be able to imitate animal vocalizations so convincingly that animals won't be able to distinguish them from their own kind.
Aza discusses the potential power and ethical implications of this technology, framing it within the context of the 'three rules of technology' discussed in a previous episode: 1) new technologies uncover new responsibilities, 2) if the technology confers power, it starts a race, and 3) without coordination, that race ends in tragedy. He highlights potential misuses by ecotourism operators, poachers, and animal agriculture.
Aza shares details about ESP's work, partnerships, and future goals, including decoding animal languages to expand human understanding and facilitate unprecedented coordination to avert mass extinction. He presents examples suggesting overlaps between human and animal experiences, and emphasizes the need to act with a duty of care for the natural world as this technology develops.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Earth Species Project aims to use AI to decode and communicate with animals within the next few years, a potential milestone that could greatly expand human understanding of nature.
- Developing the ability to communicate with animals confers immense power that could be misused by bad actors like poachers or unethical ecotourism companies, highlighting the need for ethical guidelines.
- Decoding animal communication is motivated by the goals of improving human-animal relations and accelerating conservation research.
- There appear to be some overlaps between human and animal experiences that may allow machine translation between human languages and animal vocalizations.
- AI has the potential to expand human perception and understanding of the world in unprecedented ways, including decoding the knowledge contained in animal cultures millions of years old.
- The Earth Species Project is proceeding with urgency and optimism, but also clear-eyed caution about ethical implications and the need to develop technology responsibly with duty of care.
- Talking to animals through AI is framed as a potential catalyst for unprecedented coordination between humans and nature to solve existential crises like climate change and mass extinction.
- The episode highlights the 'three rules of technology' as a guiding framework for responsibly developing transformative technologies like animal communication.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We talked about that in our recent episode about the three rules of technology, and it very much applies here.“ by Aza Raskin
- “ESP is, of course, developing this technology, both to shift the way that we relate to the rest of nature as a species, but also accelerate conservation research.“ by Aza Raskin
- “We think of this as a hopeful use of AI because we believe that someday soon, when we cross the language barrier, it could lead to a moment that superpowers a movement. Specifically, it could lead to unprecedented coordination, the kind we are going to need to avert mass extinction.“ by Aza Raskin
- “The true hope, I think, of AI is that it helps us understand ourselves and the world around us better so that we can better care for it.“ by Aza Raskin
- “And so, obviously, there's some deep ethical issues here, as well as some really exciting opportunities.“ by Aza Raskin
Entities
Concept
Company
Product
Organization
Person
Book
Episode Information
Your Undivided Attention
Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, The Center for Humane Technology
5/4/23