Tech has brought humanity closer to talking to animals – but will people like what they hear?

Humanity may be closer than ever to developing technology that enables us to talk to animals. But futurists say the world is unprepared for the ethical, economic and legal implications that come with unlocking such an ability.

Future forecasting strategists warn of fast-accelerating risks, including climate change, mounting pressure on global healthcare systems from labour shortages and unforeseen consequences of artificial intelligence.

“One thing that's on nobody's radar, or only on a few people's radars, is the fact we're moving closer to a time when we will be able to talk, to communicate with animals,” Florence Gaub, director of the research division at the Nato Defence College, told The National at the Dubai Future Forum.

The annual gathering at the Museum of the Future last week brought together government strategists, scientists, innovators and experts to identify emerging signals and stress test assumptions about what is to come in the next decade.

Ms Gaub said advances in data collection and AI were rapidly moving the world closer to fuller communication with animals. “We will be able to understand what they're going through,” she said. “They will be able to talk about their feelings, how everything is for them.”

Last year, Earth Species Project, a non-profit group focused on animal communication, launched NatureLM, an AI language model that can identity the species of an animal as it communicates. The programme can also determine the animal's approximate age and whether it is distressed or playing.

Ms Gaub said a breakthrough in communication could reshape food systems, environmental ethics and human-animal relationships.

“Do we continue eating animals if we understand that they have feelings?” she asked. Scientists, she added, are already building the datasets needed to make these systems possible. “We are at level one. We need to create awareness.”

She said long-term planning often neglected the human dimension. “The human at the centre of the future, to me, is so often neglected,” she said. She added that “being in nature, being with family, cooking, none of that exists in old futures", because deeper questions about what defines human life today and in the future are frequently overlooked.

Such questions, she said, “should be at the centre because everything else derives from that".

Speakers told The National that, while innovation is accelerating, policymakers are still overlooking profound disruptions, from ecological shifts and labour shortages to the ethical dilemmas created by AI. Taken together, the risks point to a future in which environmental, technological and social pressures converge more quickly than institutions can adapt.

Futurists warn of looming risks the world is not ready for.

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Medical labour shortage

Health care was another area identified at risk. “The world is not prepared for the shortage of doctors in the future,” said Sarah Sharif, founder of Experimental Civics.

She referred to burnout, medical school debt and the growing complexity of AI-enabled medicine as key pressures on the global workforce. Governments must rethink how they regulate innovation, she said. “It's about really thinking through how we do clinical trials, how we regulate those, how we actually think about finding the cures for these diseases with technology," she added.

Beyond health care, several speakers warned that environmental pressures also pose urgent challenges.

Climate change requires 'radical change'

“Climate change is an issue that's going to be affecting us in many more ways than people think,” said Georgios Tzoumas, co-founder of Aura under Prototypes for Humanity, a global initiative showcasing university-driven innovations addressing global challenges.

He said the effect on ecosystems and food chains required a “radical change of thinking" and that “humanity needs to change the way that we think about the world in general".

Despite the warnings, several delegates said this year’s forum was marked by cautious optimism. Ms Gaub described the key theme as “hope", noting that discussions focused not only on risks but also what can be done to shape a more resilient future.