Check out this recent benchmark MTOB (Machine Translation from One Book) -- relevant to your comment, though the book does have parallel passages so not exactly what you have in mind: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.16575
In the case of non-human communication, I know there has been some fairly well-motivated theorizing about the semantics of individual whale vocalizations. You could imagine a first pass at something like this if the meaning of (say) a couple dozen vocalizations could be characterized with a reasonable degree of confidence.
Super interesting domain that's ripe for some fresh perspectives imo. Feels like at this stage, all people can really do is throw stuff at the wall. The interesting part will begin when someone can get something to stick!
> that's basically a science-fiction babelfish or universal translator
Ten years ago I would have laughed at this notion, but today it doesn't feel that crazy.
I'd conjecture that over the next ten years, this general line of research will yield some non-obvious insights into the structure of non-human communication systems.
Increasingly feels like the sci-fi era has begun -- what a time to be alive.
In the case of non-human communication, I know there has been some fairly well-motivated theorizing about the semantics of individual whale vocalizations. You could imagine a first pass at something like this if the meaning of (say) a couple dozen vocalizations could be characterized with a reasonable degree of confidence.
Super interesting domain that's ripe for some fresh perspectives imo. Feels like at this stage, all people can really do is throw stuff at the wall. The interesting part will begin when someone can get something to stick!
> that's basically a science-fiction babelfish or universal translator
Ten years ago I would have laughed at this notion, but today it doesn't feel that crazy.
I'd conjecture that over the next ten years, this general line of research will yield some non-obvious insights into the structure of non-human communication systems.
Increasingly feels like the sci-fi era has begun -- what a time to be alive.