Communicating with aliens one day could be much easier if we study the way AI agents speak with each other

In the film Arrival , a linguist is faced with the daunting task of deciphering an alien language.

Linguists have been pondering this question for decades , but there is no easy way to find out how language evolved.

To simulate how language may evolve, we give agents (AIs) simple tasks that require communication.

We provide (almost) no restrictions on what they can say or how — we simply give them the task and let them solve it however they want.

There are numerous applications, from improving language models like ChatGPT or Claude to improving communication between autonomous vehicles or drones. By decoding emergent languages, we can make future technology easier to understand. Whether it's knowing how self-driving cars coordinate their movements or how AI systems make decisions, we're not just creating intelligent systems — we're learning to understand them. Olaf Lipinski is a PhD student at the university of Southampton studying artificial intelligence. His main focus is on emergent communication, or how AI agents can develop their own langauge..