Researchers have proposed a new ethical framework to regulate emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, used to decode animal communication, Ana Cristina Alvarado reports for Mongabay Latam.
The proposed guidelines, known as the PEPP Framework, which stands for Prepare, Engage, Prevent and Protect, lay out the principles for studying animal communication responsibly. Scientists at the More than Human Life Program (MOTH) at New York University and the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) warn that poorly regulated research can cause harm to animals.
“Even routine recording and playback can cause stress in animals,” CETI founder David Gruber told Alvarado by email.
In one documented case, researchers studying elephant communication played a recorded call from an individual that had already died, causing significant distress to the elephants that heard its call. The elephant family went wild calling and looking around for their dead relative. The dead elephant’s daughter called for days afterward.
Animal communication studies have also brought about conservation advances, Gruber added. For example, the 1970s discovery that humpback whales sing to communicate helped promote legal protections for the species.
In a separate report published by members of the MOTH and CETI teams, the authors invite readers to imagine what might happen if attempts to decipher and understand animal communication succeed.
“[R]ecent advancements in recording technology, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary collaborations have revealed that many species, from whales to honeybees, possess sophisticated communication systems,” the authors write. “The potential impact of bioacoustics and AI on environmental law and nonhuman animal law is difficult to overstate.”
The authors also highlight some of the risks that this technology could pose. For example, it could potentially be used by tourism or military programs to manipulate or control animals.
Instead, the researchers suggest that AI technology should be used in the best interest of the animals. For example, if it becomes possible to understand distress calls in whales brought on by shipping noise, such information should be used to advocate for further protections for the animals.
Adoption of the PEPP framework is voluntary, but its authors say many human and Indigenous rights standards began the same way — as nonbinding principles that later became enforceable international norms.
“If we can agree on shared standards now, formal international guidelines become feasible and enforceable,” Gruber said.
Read the full story by Ana Cristina Alvarado (in Spanish) here.
Banner image: Scientists Yanive Aluma and Odel Harve check on a subaquatic whale-recording device. Image courtesy of Project CETI.
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