AI is Helping to Decode Animals’ Speech. Will it Also Let Us Talk With Them?

Recent research is challenging long-held assumptions about human language by showing sophisticated communication in animals such as bonobos, chimpanzees, whales, and birds. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, primatologist Mélissa Berthet recorded bonobos combining calls into phrases with compositional meaning, once thought uniquely human. Chimpanzees and Japanese tits also show this ability, while whales display phonetic structures resembling vowels and diphthongs. These findings suggest elements of syntax, morphology, and semantics may exist beyond humans.

AI is now accelerating the analysis of animal communication, helping decode ultrasonic calls or whale clicks and even attempting to “talk back.” However, many hallmarks of human language remain unmatched in animals, including displacement (talking about absent things), productivity (creating new phrases), duality (meaning from meaningless sounds), and recursion. While evidence hints at cognitive parallels—such as crows demonstrating recursion—animal communication systems remain less flexible and expansive. The studies expand understanding of language evolution, but debate continues over whether non-human animals truly “have language.”