Dr Julie Elie, a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize for two-way interspecies communication after decoding the vocalizations of zebra finches. The prize, worth $100,000, recognizes her work in identifying the 11 core calls in the zebra finch vocabulary and their meanings.
How the research was conducted
For over a decade, Elie observed and recorded the sounds made by zebra finches and classified the calls according to the situation and the bird that produced them. She then employed machine learning to analyze how information was encoded in the calls. Finally, she conducted tests that confirmed the birds agreed with her classification.
In one experiment, zebra finches were played various calls from their repertoire when they tapped a button. Some calls were followed by a reward of seeds. Over time, the birds learned to tap the button to skip unrewarding calls, similar to scrolling through videos on social media, Elie explained.
Key findings and implications
Elie's work revealed that zebra finches announce who they are and what they are doing, and recognize one another using individual signatures, regardless of the specific call. She also found that the birds sometimes confused calls with similar meanings more often than those that sounded the same. According to Elie, "Their responses indicated they have a mental imagery of the meaning of their vocalisations. In other words, that they understand the meaning of their call types."
Prof Yossi Yovel, a zoologist at Tel Aviv University and chair of the judging panel, described the work as "a key moment in the field." Prof Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics and a judge, praised Elie's "absolutely phenomenal work" over 15 years, noting that she not only built a dictionary of the 11 core words but also asked the finches themselves, through ingenious experimental techniques, whether she had the meanings right.
The prize and future prospects
The Coller-Dolittle prize was launched in 2024 by the Jeremy Coller Foundation, which promotes animal welfare and sentience, in partnership with Tel Aviv University. Beyond the annual $100,000 prize, the foundation has established a $10 million grand prize for solving the problem of two-way human-animal communication.
Jeremy Coller, the British billionaire financier behind the prize, expressed optimism: "I'm convinced this is now inevitable. It's inevitable because AI is accelerating so fast. I have absolute conviction we will crack the code by 2030, a breakthrough that will benefit humans and our fellow animals the world over."
Other shortlisted researchers
Other scientists shortlisted for the prize included a French team that showed how African striped mice reveal their identity through ultrasonic squeaks; a Swiss-US team that found bonobos combine their calls into sequences resembling human sentences; and another French team that worked with researchers in Côte d'Ivoire to understand chimpanzee hoos and yelps.
Advances in artificial intelligence are transforming hopes that humans could one day communicate with animals meaningfully. However, Prof Yovel noted that there is still a long way to go to achieve back-and-forth communication.
