Finalists Announced for $10M Coller Dolittle Challenge on AI-Powered Interspecies Communication

The Coller Dolittle Challenge has announced its shortlist of four research teams competing for its inaugural $100,000 annual prize, part of a long-term effort to develop scientifically rigorous models of two-way interspecies communication using artificial intelligence. 

Backed by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and administered by Tel Aviv University, the challenge offers a $10 million Grand Prize to any team that achieves sustained, autonomous communication with a non-human species—defined as an animal initiating communication independently, without recognizing the presence of a human recipient.

The four finalists, representing institutions in the USA, Germany, France, and Israel, have applied advanced AI methods to interface with species as diverse as dolphins, nightingales, cuttlefish, and monkeys. Each project involves non-invasive techniques to decipher and reproduce species-specific communication systems, in some cases eliciting responses from the animals to human-initiated signals. The prize committee emphasized the range of modalities—acoustic, visual, and tactile—being explored across terrestrial, marine, and aerial species.

Among the selected projects: researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have identified 20 distinct whistle types in dolphins that suggest a structured, language-like system; a team from the Max Planck Institute in Germany has built an AI model capable of analyzing and generating interactive nightingale songs; researchers in Paris have decoded structured “arm wave” sequences in cuttlefish; and a team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found evidence of vocal “naming” behavior in marmoset monkeys.

The finalists will present their research at a virtual public event on May 15, 2025, where the $100,000 prize recipient will be announced live. The event will also feature a keynote lecture by Irene Pepperberg on grey parrot cognition and communication.

The Coller Dolittle Challenge is chaired by Professor Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University, known for his machine learning work on bat communication. The initiative is designed to operate on an open-access basis, with data from participating teams made available to the broader scientific community. Annual $100,000 prizes will continue to be awarded in subsequent years until the Grand Prize conditions are met.

Photo: izanbar

Topics: AI & Digital