We're thrilled to welcome Steven VanRoekel as ESP's new CEO 🚀 Steve brings leadership across public, private, and nonprofit sectors, along with and a deep belief that AI-driven breakthroughs in animal communication can transform how we relate to our planet. 🔗 www.earthspecies.org/blog/introdu...

This #WorldWildlifeDay, we celebrate Earth’s extraordinary diversity: 🐿️ Prairie dog calls can signal what kind of predator is coming 🐋 Whale songs spread across oceans and pass through generations 🦜 Grey parrots give their chicks names they use for life What else might we learn?

When we begin to understand the language of other species, the way we govern and care for the planet changes. 🌎 At the recent World Governments Summit, ESP Co-Founder, Aza Raskin, dives into how we’re decoding animal communication, and why it matters. 🎥 Watch the keynote: youtu.be/dplIa9oe3hA

We're heading to the International Conservation Technology Conference 🐋 ESP's Research Advocate, Diane Kim, will present our latest work on NatureLM-audio — the first large audio language model for animal vocalizations. 🗓️ February 18th ⏰ 3:50 PM - 4:00 PM 📍Cusco 2 If you’re attending, come along!

New preprint on vocal communication in zebra finches! 🐦 Earth Species Project and McGill University analyzed over 1.5 million female zebra finch calls to understand how female zebra finches modulate their vocalizations during natural exchanges.

We’ve proven machines can learn to use language, but it took brute force to get there. Meanwhile, animal communication evolved over millions of years under real-world constraints, shaping systems that are adaptable and efficient. What can #AI learn from nature? 🧠 Read more: bit.ly/ai-biomimicry

Exciting news: our “What Matters for Bioacoustic Encoding” paper has been accepted to ICLR 2026! 🎉 We’ve also open-sourced the models and released AVEX, a new Python package for training and evaluating bioacoustics representation learning models. 📃 Documentation: earthspecies.github.io/avex/

📣 Earth Species Project is #hiring! 📣 We’re looking for a Senior Infrastructure Engineer to help us build the foundational pipelines to decode #animalcommunication with advanced #AI. If you’re excited about building high-performance infrastructure, apply today! www.earthspecies.org/blog/were-hi...

⏰ Reminder: Task proposals for the 2026 #BioDCASE Challenge are due Jan 8. Submit your idea and help define the next set of challenge tasks! 🔗Learn more & submit: biodcase.github.io/challenge2026/ #bioacoustics #AIforconservation #animalcommunication

Our partnership with @raincoast.org to study killer whale communication has been a highlight of 2025. 👉 Listen to the voices of these incredible animals and learn more about how you can support the project: www.raincoast.org/listen/

🐦‍⬛ New paper in Animal Cognition covering our carrion crow project with partners at @Univeristy of Leon. 52 mini-biologgers were deployed on wild carrion crows in Spain — capturing 127K+ vocalizations. 🔗: www.earthspecies.org/blog/unlocki... (1/4)

Will AI help us break the interspecies understanding barrier in time to change our relationship with the rest of nature? @aza will keynote @sxsw.com to bring a conversation about what happens when can listen to and learn from the languages of other species. The clock is ticking. 🌍 #SXSW2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us at #NeurIPS2025 for the inaugural AI for Non-Human Animal Communication workshop! Seeing a room full of researchers from ML, bioacoustics, and ethology gather around shared questions was such an exciting moment for the field.

Looking forward to connecting tomorrow at #NeurIPS2025 for the AI for Non-Human Animal Communication workshop! If you're at NeurIPS already, feel free to stop by: 📍 Room 9 (Upper Level), San Diego Convention Center 🗓️ Sat, Dec 6, 9 AM-5 PM 🔗 aiforanimalcomms.org

We’re less than 2 weeks away from the AI for Non-Human Animal Communication Workshop at @neuripsconf.bsky.social! Meet the full lineup of Lightning Talk speakers spanning research across the tree of life: from cetaceans, primates & frogs, to fruit bats, fruit flies & pollinators 🐋 🐸 🦇 🐝

Meet our speakers for the AI for Non-Human Animal Communication workshop at @NeurIPSConf! 🐬 Laela Sayigh – decoding dolphin communication 🦇 Oisin Mac Aodha – AI for biodiversity monitoring 🐦 Julie Elie – neural mechanisms of songbird & bat vocal learning Learn more and join: aiforanimalcomms.org

We're thrilled to welcome @drthomasz.bsky.social to our Board! From leading NASA science missions that reveal new worlds and seeking for signs of life across the cosmos, Thomas is now helping us unlock a different frontier: understanding non-human intelligence right here on our own planet.

“We are losing the other cultures of Earth.” 🎧 Aza Raskin talks with @claresduffy.bsky.social on how AI's potential to help us understand animal communication might also reconnect humanity with the rest of nature - before it's too late. www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...

🕊️ Dr. Goodall transformed how we see the natural world and our place within it. Her courage, curiosity, and deep listening to other species inspire the heart of our mission at Earth Species Project. We will miss her dearly.

🌍 For the first time, we asked the world what they want from AI that can decode animal communication. The answer? 70% want to know what animals think and feel. The world is ready to listen. Read the report for more insights: www.earthspecies.org/blog/what-th...

💡 How can we build #AI models that generalize across species + tasks? 🐦🐋🐒 This is a fundamental question for our work at ESP and it’s the topic of our most recent paper and blog post: www.earthspecies.org/blog/what-ma... 🧵Read below for more👇

🐋🐦🐸 We just launched an interactive demo of NatureLM-audio on @hf.co! 👉 Try the demo with your audio or ours, share your feedback, and help us shape the future of decoding animal communication: huggingface.co/blog/EarthSp...

⚠️ Deadline extended— submit by Sept. 5th! There is still time to apply to be a part of the AI and Non-Human Animal Communication workshop at @neuripsconf.bsky.social. 🔗 Learn more & apply: aiforanimalcomms.org

Join us at @neuripsconf.bsky.social 2025 🔉 There is still time to apply to be a part of the AI for Non-Human Animal Communication workshop! Submit your proposals on the intersection of AI & bioacoustics by Aug. 31 and learn more at aiforanimalcomms.org

FrogID tested our NatureLM-audio model to help verify frog calls from the public. Even without fine-tuning, it could save 300+ hrs of work yearly— and it even excelled on tasks it wasn't trained for. 🐸💡 www.earthspecies.org/blog/listeni...

Over 8 million species share our planet—and until now we’ve only understood one. We've proposed a talk at #SXSW2026 all about how AI is helping us listen to the voices of nature. If you'd like to see us there, click the heart on our proposal to vote💚 ⬇️ participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sx...

📢 Call for Submissions ESP is hosting the AI for Non-Human Animal Communication workshop at @neuripsconf.bsky.social 2025! We welcome short papers & proposals that explore the use of AI in understanding animal communication. 🗓️ Deadline: Aug 31, 2025 🔗 aiforanimalcomms.org

What if we could decipher the voices of other species? ESP co-founder & Board member Katie Zacarian joins Ben Goldsmith on Rewilding the World to explore how frontier AI is decoding animal communication—and what it could mean for interspecies connection👇🏽 tinyurl.com/32czw4zu

To truly share this planet requires a shift in how we think, act, and connect across species. This #WorldConservationDay, we're reflecting on this responsibility, which is at the core of our mission, and reinforced by the perspective Christiana brings as the newest member of our board.

For the first time, a non-primate species has been proven to use gestures to signal what they want. 🐘🍎 New work led by @vestaeleuteri.bsky.social at @univie.ac.at‪ marks a key milestone in animal communication, showing elephants are capable of goal-directed intentionality. tinyurl.com/yc3a2vew

Thanks to‪ @louromain.bsky.social & Circle of Voices for including ESP’s perspective on #UNOC2025. Listen to hear Jane Lawton (at 54:34) share reflections and learnings we’re taking forward as we continue our work to decode animal communication. tinyurl.com/bdcu32ac

Last quarter we celebrated big wins—from open-sourcing NatureLM-audio to launching new partnerships & projects. Today, we look ahead to a new chapter as Katie Zacarian passes the baton after 3 incredible years of leadership. Read more: mailchi.mp/a5d101927fdd...

We’re partnering with @raincoast.org to explore how killer whales communicate in an evolving ocean environment. Combining aerial & underwater data, we're building a robust dataset leveraging AI to analyze 10+ years of bioacoustic recordings. Read more: www.earthspecies.org/blog/decodin...

We're welcoming Christiana Figueres to our Board. A global leader in climate diplomacy, Christiana brings a fierce commitment to systems change—and a shared vision for humanity that centers the natural world. Join the conversation: www.earthspecies.org/donate

We're compiling a list of all our collaborators, staff & partners in one place. Check out our StarterPack to connect with some of the key voices in animal communication, AI, bioacoustics & ethology👇🏽 Let us know if we missed anyone & please share to help us grow the community 🔊 🌎 go.bsky.app/AdivEXH

ESP is headed to Nice for #UNOC2025 🌊 Catch us throughout the week as we co-host, listen to, and learn from sessions exploring how humans interact with the natural world—and how we can help drive momentum toward systems that support a more resilient ocean and planet.

2024 was a pivotal year for ESP—we launched new models & benchmarks, open-sourced NatureLM-audio, and led key conversations on interspecies understanding. Dive into our 2024 Annual Report for a glimpse into our progress ⬇️ tinyurl.com/44c9r2sa

AI provides the opportunity to equip animal communication researchers with new capabilities. Thanks @omarg.bsky.social for celebrating how advancements like Laela Sayigh's award-winning work & ESP's models are helping break down interspecies language barriers. www.cnet.com/science/want...

Wildlife populations have declined by 73% since 1970—up from 69% in 2022, according to @worldwildlife.org. At ESP, we believe every species has a voice. This #WorldBiodiversityDay, we invite you to reflect on why listening matters now more than ever. Learn more: livingplanet.panda.org/en-US/

AI may never give us a Rosetta Stone for animal communication—but like the telescope, has the potential to expand what humans are able to perceive. Thank you @sarahscoles.bsky.social for highlighting this work & asking the challenging questions that come with it ⬇️

ESP co-founder & president, Aza Raskin delivered the keynote at the 2025 @calacademy.bsky.social fundraising gala where he spoke about the importance of investing in science & how approaches like frontier #AI are shaping a more resilient & connected future. Watch here: youtube.com/live/PHYplEWTovc

#ICYMI the ESP research team presented at #ICLR2025 last week, sharing the latest updates on NatureLM-audio. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to connect, exchange ideas & hear about this exciting work. Explore NatureLM-audio, now open-sourced: earthspecies.github.io/naturelm-aud...

📢 We've open-sourced NatureLM-audio, the first audio-language foundation model for #bioacoustics. Trained on large-scale animal vocalization, human speech & music datasets, the model enables zero-shot classification, detection & querying across diverse species & environments 👇🏽

I'll be at #ICLR2025 in Singapore this Saturday for poster session 6, co-presenting our NatureLM-audio project! If you're around and interested in AI for bioacoustics, ecology, or related areas, would love to meet up — feel free to reach out!

AVES is now pip-installable 🎉 This self-supervised, transformer-based model is pretrained on large-scale animal vocalization datasets & thanks to our incredible engineering team is now more accessible than ever–ready to run with just a single command. 🔗 github.com/earthspecies...

📢#BioDCASE2025 is here! This new challenge brings DCASE-style evaluation to #bioacoustics – applying #machinelearning to better understand the sounds of the natural world. ESP helped organize one of this year’s tasks & we can’t wait to see how you tackle it👇🏽 biodcase.github.io/

ESP is heading to #ICASSP2025! We'll be presenting our paper, Biodenoising, at the Bio Acoustic III poster session on 4/11 at 8:30am. Looking forward to sharing this work & connecting with teams in Hyderabad 🌟 Demo: earthspecies.github.io/biodenoising/ cc: Marius Miron & @mhagiwara.bsky.social

What does it mean to understand another species? For the first time, experts from across ethology, biology & tech have developed a set of critera for decoding animal communication. Learn more in @interspecies-io.bsky.social's landmark report: www.interspecies.io/publication

ESP Senior Research Scientist, Sara Keen's talk from the 2025 @aiforanimals.bsky.social conference is now available on YouTube! 📺 🔊 Watch below to learn more about our work using cutting-edge tools in bioacoustics and AI. 🔗: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nI_...

We’ve been looking ahead – last week we shared the very first look at our guiding strategy in our newsletter✨ Missed it? Catch up below & join our mailing list to always get our latest updates👇🏽 mailchi.mp/dd109cf2828d...