FT Tech Tonic

Can AI help us speak to animals? Karen Bakker interview

The Canadian scientist and author Karen Bakker, who died unexpectedly in August this year, was a leading voice in the bioacoustic research community. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life, explained how it might one day be possible to create a kind of Google Translate for animals and was the inspiration behind this Tech Tonic series. This episode contains the full interview that we recorded with her. We are posting it as a tribute to her remarkable work.  Free links:<a href="https://on.ft.com/48lBjFK" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Translate for the zoo? How humans might talk to animals</a><a href="https://on.ft.com/3PFAuAf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Karen Bakker, scientist and author, 1971-2023</a><a href="https://ig.ft.com/generative-ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How generative AI really works</a> Credits: Elephant bee rumble from Lucy King <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2d20a9f6-99c2-45ce-96c8-7ebe4627383c" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com</a> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

We are in the midst of a digital revolution, where the line between our physical world and cyberspace is blurring. Tech Tonic is the show that investigates the promises and perils of this new technological age.  Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.