Do little or Dolittle

It’s officially winter in Australia, which means the annual Instagram Stories assault from sun-filled European holidays is upon us.

One of the joys of travelling to warmer climes, aside from escaping horizontal rain, is the experience of new cultures and languages. 

Those languages come easy to some. For others, five years of French lessons have led to such conversational marvels as “un croissant si vous plaît”.

Technology may be levelling that playing field. Google recently announced live translation in the speaker's own voice for Google Meet. Apple Airpods will reportedly provide a similar service in the next iOS update.

These capabilities have naturally led to a noticeable drop in the number of students applying to study language and translation, according to Serge Sharoff at the University of Leeds.

There’s a sadness to this trend, a tendency away from exploration and towards homogeneity, even if it leads to fewer instances of helplessly holding up a menu and pointing vaguely at what you hope is the chicken.

But as ever, there is something new and exciting to act as a counterpoint. We are close to translating animal languages, and the race is well and truly on. 

Project Ceti is using AI to understand sperm whale speech. Google has released DolphinGemma, an AI program to translate dolphins. Baidu is seeking a patent to use voice, body language, behavioural changes and other biological signs to translate animal sounds into human language.

This would be an extraordinary development which has been compared to talking to alien life. It could open up new experiences and bring us all closer to the rich and diverse world we inhabit.

Or it could confirm what we already know. Your dog wants food, the pigeons want food, and your cat hates you - until it wants food.