In this Life with Machines episode, Baratunde Thurston talks with Aza Raskin about something straight out of science fiction—teaching AI to communicate with animals. As co-founder of the Earth Species Project, Aza is working on technology that could let us listen to whales, understand what elephants are saying, and maybe even talk back. This isn’t just about decoding nature’s languages—it’s about rethinking intelligence, communication, and our place in the world. Aza and Baratunde get into the ethics, the mind-blowing implications, and whether we’re about to make first contact… without ever leaving Earth. Plus, BLAIR, the show’s AI co-producer, chimes in—adding its own perspective to this conversation about intelligence, language, and what it means to truly understand.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

01:07 Meet Aza Raskin: Pioneer of Interspecies Communication

11:06 The Earth Species Project: Decoding Animal Language

17:19 AI and the Shape of Language

28:17 The Ethical Implications of Interspecies Communication

32:39 Digital Twins

39:11 Guess the Animal Sound

45:36 Rights of Nature and Indigenous Perspectives

48:47 Funding and Team Expansion

50:55 The Viral Songs of Humpback Whales

53:01 Ethical Considerations in AI and Animal Communication

55:52 The Role of Keystone Species

01:08:42 AI's Impact on Society and Environment

01:12:40 Final Thoughts and Invitation

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Earth Species

X

LinkedIn

GitHub

Bluesky

Aza's X

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Work with Life With Machines: [email protected]

Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: [email protected]

Write to Blair: [email protected]

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Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston

Executive Producer and Showrunner: Alie Kilts

Senior Producer and Writer: Alex Stone

Associate Producer: Layne Deyling Cherland

Video Editor: Erik Shute

Videography and Audio Engineering from the team at Voicing Change Media

Theme Music: Andy Clausen

Special Envoy to the Machines: Peter Loforte 

Life with Machines is a Voicing Change Media production

Sponsored by Lenovo 

#AI #AnimalCommunication #ArtificialIntelligence #TalkingToAnimals #WildlifeTech #FutureOfAI #EarthSpeciesProject #WhaleTalk #AnimalLanguage #TechForGood #AIandNature #InterspeciesCommunication #DecodingNature