{"id":138,"date":"2026-02-18T17:49:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/?page_id=138"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:21:07","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/conference\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natures in Translation: AI, Ethics and Environmental Conservation<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The question of who can speak on behalf of the\u00a0other-than-human world has been central to the development of environmental studies\u00a0as well as\u00a0animal and plant studies\u00a0<\/span>(Franks 2019;\u00a0Gagliano, 2013; Imhoff &\u00a0Quiro\u0301s, 2022; Kohn, 2013; Marder, 2014;\u00a0Meijer, 2019;\u00a0Simard, 2021; Thomsen et al., 2023, You, 2024)<\/span>. As new AI technologies promise to translate animal\u00a0and plant\u00a0communications\u00a0into human language(s), these questions are also of increasing importance to biologists, ethologists, humanities\u00a0scholars\u00a0and animal conservation actors. In their promotional and public-facing discourse, AI initiatives such as Earth Species Project and Cetacean Translation\u00a0<\/span>Initiative<\/span>\u00a0(CETI) envision a future where humans might bridge the communication gap between themselves and non-human species\u00a0with\u00a0AI\u00a0technologies\u00a0<\/span>(B<\/span>akker, 2022; Rodr\u00edguez-Garavito et al., 2025; Rutz et al., 2023)<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The intellectual, corporate and media narratives articulated around\u00a0the\u00a0generative AI technologies involved promise not only to improve human understanding of the natural world, but to also catalyse a cultural shift in how we interact with\u00a0non-human\u00a0species and the environment. This interdisciplinary conference explores the ethical implications of AI-assisted animal translation for environmental conservation and human-environmental relations. How might the use of AI to translate\u00a0more-than-human communication\u00a0help or hinder environmental conservation practices\u00a0within a\u00a0multispecies\u00a0justice\u00a0framework?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Translation, whether it takes place across human or more-than-human sign systems, is not a neutral act of transmission or communication, but a situated and relational activity which actively shapes our understanding of difference\u00a0<\/span>(Venuti, 2018)<\/span>. When practiced ethically and critically, translation\u00a0facilitates\u00a0attunement\u00a0to diverse voices and expands our cultural repertoires of knowing. However, translation scholars\u00a0have also revealed the extent to which \u2018domesticating\u2019 translation norms and practices can collide with histories of extraction, colonialism,\u00a0domination\u00a0and misrepresentation\u00a0<\/span>(Inghilleri, 2018;\u00a0Tachtiris, 2024;\u00a0Samoyault, 2020, Venuti 2018)<\/span>. More recently, translation and\u00a0ecosemiotic\u00a0scholars have turned their attention to the role of translation in mediating\u00a0ecosemiotic\u00a0systems and in shaping our relation to the environment\u00a0<\/span>(Cronin, 2017; Grass, 2025; Laura Diamanti, 2022;\u00a0Marais, 2018;\u00a0Susam-Saraeva, 2025; Grass, 2024;\u00a0Zengiaro, 2025). In a post-Darwinian historical context where, as David Abram\u00a0argues, a\u00a0perception of language as code has been used to argue for the superiority of the human species in relation to other animals, how\u00a0can we\u00a0ensure\u00a0that\u00a0AI-translation technologies for non-human animals do not reproduce such logocentric hierarchies?<\/span>\u00a0(Abram, 1997; Webb 2025)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Given that the development of these technologies intersects with broader processes of\u00a0neoliberalisation\u00a0of\u00a0nature\u00a0in which ecological relations become sites of data extraction, commodification and market\u2011driven optimisation,\u00a0how might\u00a0AI-assisted translation tools serve\u00a0other-than-humans\u00a0rather than reinforce human voices and neoliberal designs? \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not\u00a0scientists’ first attempt at communicating with\u00a0other-than-human species (<\/span>Hogan, 2020;\u00a0<\/span>Lilly, 1967). \u00a0Such communication experiments, often done in controlled settings, relied on logocentric assumptions about what constitutes meaningful communication which led to extensive harm done to non-human animals\u00a0<\/span>(Peters, 2020)<\/span>. Framings of\u00a0AI-enabled animal\u00a0translation\u00a0in the media through \u201cfirst contact\u201d narratives also often overlook the rich and diverse\u00a0Indigenous\u00a0knowledge systems that have sought to develop more sustainable, relational means of communication with the\u00a0non-human world. These knowledge systems that embed\u00a0other-than-human\u00a0personhood in language, culture, and practice\u00a0offer crucial epistemological alternatives to models of extractions which position animals primarily as objects of scientific inquiry or technological inter<\/span>vention\u00a0(<\/span>Kimmerer, 2013;\u00a0TallBear, 2015; Todd, 2014).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0addition, thinkers such as Donna Haraway, Vinciane Despret, Eileen Crist, and Glen Coulthard have similarly challenged dominant Western frameworks of human-non-human animal relations, advocating for modes of attention, co-becoming, and political recognition that foreground interspecies entanglement and multispecies justice. Together, these diverse bodies of scholarship remind us that the question of how to think, speak, and live with animal others can be approached from multiple intellectual, linguistic and cultural traditions across time and place (<\/span>Celermajer\u00a0et al., 2021; Crist, 1999; Crist, 2019; Despret, 2016; Haraway, 2016; Heise, 2008; Heise, 2024).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At this\u00a0conference, we\u00a0invite perspectives from translation studies, animal behaviour science, philosophy, law, literature, computer science, social\u00a0science,\u00a0digital\u00a0humanities\u00a0and related fields\u00a0to address urgent questions relating to the use of AI for environmental conservation purposes. Who has authority to speak for non-human animals? How do these technologies extract,\u00a0process\u00a0and interpret data, and what assumptions do they embed about animal communication? What conditions would allow these technologies to contribute to a more\u00a0equitable\u00a0listening culture, and how might we\u00a0identify\u00a0and address the logocentric or anthropocentric assumptions embedded in their design?\u00a0What might a\u00a0more\u00a0expansive understanding\u00a0of \u201clistening\u201d at the intersection of environmental conservation, translation studies, critical AI\u00a0studies\u00a0and media theory entail? What broader inter-disciplinary framework and collaborations can be developed to tackle these important\u00a0epistemological, ethical, and ecological\u00a0questions?<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natures in Translation: AI, Ethics and Environmental Conservation\u00a0 The question of who can speak on behalf of the\u00a0other-than-human world has been central to the development of environmental studies\u00a0as well as\u00a0animal and plant studies\u00a0(Franks 2019;\u00a0Gagliano, 2013; Imhoff &\u00a0Quiro\u0301s, 2022; Kohn, 2013; Marder, 2014;\u00a0Meijer, 2019;\u00a0Simard, 2021; Thomsen et al., 2023, You, 2024). As new AI technologies promise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"parent":32,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-138","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138\/revisions\/171"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/animalsintranslation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}