Considering the fear of losing our jobs and the danger it poses to climate change due to the energy it needs to operate, it was about time for AI to give us some joy. This study has brought us closer to the day when we can talk to our dogs.
A study from the University of Michigan has developed an AI model capable of distinguishing dog barks. The tool can differentiate between friendly or aggressive barks, but also provides data on the age, sex, and breed of the dog which, they point out, is the first step towards better communication between humans and animals.
The first step towards understanding dog barks
Facing the challenge of getting enough data to carry out this study due to the limited available information on a scientific scale, the team has taken advantage of a feature of AI that humans have been using for years, voice recognition on which tools like Siri, Alexa, or voice-to-text systems on computers and mobile devices are based.
The challenge they faced was that, if these models were capable of learning and encoding human speech patterns by analyzing aspects like tone or accent, an adapted model could do the same to identify, interpret, and categorize dog barks. They say that the results show that sounds and patterns derived from human speech “can serve as a basis for analyzing and understanding the acoustic patterns of other sounds, such as animal vocalizations.”
Continuing to work on this new language model can not only benefit biologists, animal behavior studies, or the pursuit of a world where animal welfare gains even more importance, but it also promises a human-dog communication system through which we can interpret and respond to the physical and emotional needs of our pets.
Image | Rodrigodeandrade en Midjourney
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