Researchers are exploring ways to communicate with animals

The £4 million Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentiment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) will launch its work on September 30, researching non-human animals with experts from a range of disciplines.

The center's projects include a study examining how artificial intelligence could enable people to "talk" to their pets, as well as exploring where problems might arise in the process and how to avoid potential pitfalls.

According to Independent Turkish, the centre’s first director, Professor Jonathan Birch, spoke to the Guardian:

We love that our pets exhibit human characteristics, and with the advent of AI, the ways your pet can communicate with you will be taken to a whole new level. AI often produces fabricated responses to please the user rather than being based on objective reality. This could be disastrous if applied to pet welfare. We urgently need regulations governing the responsible and ethical use of AI in animal care. There is a complete lack of regulation in this area. The Center aims to develop ethical guidelines that will be accepted globally.

The center will work with civil society organizations to develop guidance and research that can then be used in global lobbying efforts.

Jeff Sebo, director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Welfare at New York University, told the newspaper that issues such as animal sentience and welfare, the impact of artificial intelligence on animals, and public attitudes toward animals are "among the most important, difficult, and neglected issues facing us as a society."

“Humans share the world with millions of species and quintillions of individual animals, and whether we like it or not, we impact animals all over the world,” he added.

Professor Kristin Andrews, a member of the new centre's board of trustees, said she believes the new project could even answer what she sees as the biggest question in science: what is human consciousness and what it is.

We still don't understand what makes humans conscious, or why someone gains or loses consciousness. But we do know that the way to find answers is to first study simple systems: Science has made major advances in genomics and medicine by studying simple organisms.