Can AI models trained on human speech help us understand dogs? People who want to understand their dogs might be about to be given a helping paw by AI, according to the latest study. Researchers from the University of Michigan are developing tools that can identify whether a dog’s bark conveys playfulness or aggression, which should already be apparent to many a Reg reader. Sperm whales …
I see several glaring flaws in this from the scientific perspective, the most prominent being:
[1] barking is only one of many ways dogs express themselves, many of which are indeed silent behaviours that would all need to be assessed;
[2] we have no real idea of what goes on in dogs' minds except inferentially and in the crudest terms ("playfulness or aggression"). I doubt anyone would be interested in researching human responses at that primitive level;
[3] the sample is tiny -- "With the human speech model Wav2Vec2, researchers built a dataset of dog vocalizations recorded from 74 dogs of varying breed, age and sex, in a variety of contexts".
I have a horrible feeling that this could turn out to be a "what can we apply AI to so we can land a research grant" proposal.
Agreed. Even with humans, there are many silent forms of expression that no AI can pick up through language. I mean, just ask any married man who feels the need to ask his wife if everything is okay.
Animals have a multitude of physical options to express themselves as well. A cat doesn't need to hiss at you to make you understand that you're unwelcome.
But, this is a start. However ridiculous it might seem at first glance, it might provide a few clues that can be built upon in the coming years. I say go for it. Nobody knows what we might find out in the long run.
... Dogs don't use vocalization as a primary communication tool.
However, it's a novel bit of research that makes use of one of today's largest grant money cash cows. The researchers might be able to milk it for a year or three, until people realize we've been in the current AI Winter for a couple years already.
The last time I saw something about one of these dog translation apps, I asked the question:
Do dogs have different languages in the same way that there are human languages?
I got one response from someone who said they had moved with their dog from Essex to South Wales, and their dog wasn't able to communicate with Welsh dogs in the same way that it could with Essex dogs, and therefore thought that the answer was, yes.
If this is true, then any AI system is going to have to understand and classify different dog languages before it can have any hope of understanding meaning.
《Essex to South Wales,》
Somehow don't think an Essex bitch would have too much trouble communicating the basics to a Cardiff dog. :)
I would have thought there were light years between language and mere vocalization.
From experience dogs can have quite a large recognition vocabulary of human speech and potentially understand very simple grammatical constructs of tense (now, later), number (other), prepositions (behind, under) and properties (hot, colours) but a very limited ability to communicate these.
Some birds like crows(raven in AU), magpies, parrot species are a rather clever lot (to the point of nuisance) and have a wide repertoire of sounds which I would imagine should make them a better target for this type of study.
We need an award like Ignobles for the most imbecilic or avaricious proposal using contempoarary AI
The Pantalone Awards
Dogs learn various human words not as words, but as direction. Dogs trained in English will ignore humans speaking French and vice-versa. Local dialect can make a difference, as can a heavy accent. See farmers with sheepdogs hailing from the Scottish Highlands, Wales and the Dales. The dogs are doing the same work, but how the farmer communicates with them can change.
HOWEVER, a good dog trainer knows that dogs communicate primarily with posture and body movement. Thus they start with the basics (sit, stand, down, off, stay, come, go, walk, run, left, right) using nothing but body position and hand signals. Later, after you can drive a dog, you add vocalization, whistles and etc. to suit yourself, according to the situation.
I personally have never had an issue working with dogs (cats, horses, cows, sheep, whatever) outside my local area. Each species seems to respond to the same non-verbal cues, world-wide. I have bought horses and dogs on six continents.
With that said, when we bring a new critter into our space here at the ranch, it often takes a while for the newbie to fit in with our existing critters. But it's not that they speak a different language, rather their expectations are slightly different because of upbringing ... and the new pecking order doesn't help, obviously.
My mutt has very few needs... Constant food and walkies. He licks his bits 24/7 and barks everything that moves and is not me. He's easy.
My missus on the other hand is bloody complicated and I could do with an AI to tell me what is actually going on in her head because I'm crap at working that out.
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know quite a lot of spoken language. They know what 'car' means, and 'walkies', 'leash', 'stop', 'let's go', and a lot more, including 'vet'. If any mention of 'vet' is made prior to 'car' or 'let's go', they will hide. Normally they like 'car'.
They also make specific noises for specific problems. Specific barking means 'unidentified person approaching'; other barking means 'our friends are back', and more. There's a difference between 'feed me' and 'feed me right now'.
You have taught them that language, they did not come with it. That is human lingo, they have learned to translate specific human vocalizations into directions.
Likewise, they have learned that if they bark a certain way, they get chow. If they bark another way, they get chow NOW (because you are a pushover). And in fact, they have learned that barking is a good way to get your attention, so they try to bark as often as possible. We call dogs like that "blue sky barkers". I'll bet your neighbors love you.
A "blue sky barker" barks because the sky is blue. When it's cloudy, the sky is blue somewhere in the world ...
There's a lot more to birdsong than that. Chickens communicate using multiple different vocalisations for different situations. Kookaburras and Australian Magpies both have (different) complex family bonding songs, and other vocalisations with other meanings. Parrots are capable of a wide range of different sounds. Even at a basic level, many species of bird have an alarm call separate from a mating call. And then there's the mystery that is the Lyrebird!
Like when you’re doing something stupid like staring at that box of light again instead of feeding the dog/playing with the dog/taking the dog out to pee and the dog just sits there staring at you until you finally get it, you stupid human.
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