The Coller-Doolittle Challenge
In May 2024, the Jeremy Coller Foundation partnered with Tel Aviv University to launch the Coller-Doolittle Challenge, a competition focused on two-way interspecies communication. This initiative offers an annual $100,000 award to researchers, along with a grand prize of either $10 million in equity investment or $500,000 in cash.
The first $100,000 prize was awarded to a team led by marine biologist Leila Sayigh from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for their work on dolphin communication. Sayigh’s group has been studying a population of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, for over 40 years. During this time, they have identified at least 20 types of non-signature whistles among the dolphins. One type of whistle triggered an avoidance response, suggesting it may serve as an alarm signal, while another sound provoked mixed reactions and could function as a signal indicating ongoing events.
Participation and Awards
The U.S.-based organization Earth Species Project is also involved in this initiative, developing large audio language models such as NatureLM-audio. The competition’s scientific committee hopes to achieve communication similar to the Turing test, highlighting the importance of advancing interspecies communication. Jeremy Coller stated,
“Just as the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphs, I believe the power of AI will help us unlock interspecies communication.”
The second annual Coller-Doolittle Prize ceremony will take place on May 26, 2026, at 17:00 Kyiv time. Nominees for the 2026 prize include:
- Katherine Crockford from France and Côte d'Ivoire
- Julie Elie from the United States
- Nicolas Mathevon from France
- Melissa Berthe, Martin Surbeck, and Simon Townsend from Germany and the United States
Katherine Crockford has been recognized for her work on decoding vocal communication in chimpanzees, Julie Elie for studying the language of zebra finches, Nicolas Mathevon for research on ultrasonic signals in wild mice, and the team of Berthe, Surbeck, and Townsend for investigating the vocal system of bonobos.
A separate lifetime achievement award of $10,000 will be presented to 77-year-old Irene Pepperberg of Harvard University. Leila Sayigh noted, 'Our work shows that these whistles could potentially function like words, shared among multiple dolphins.' Meanwhile, Jonathan Birch emphasized,
“We have nothing like this for other animals,”underscoring the uniqueness of research in this field.
The Coller-Doolittle Challenge represents a significant step in exploring interspecies communication, which could fundamentally change our understanding of interactions between humans and animals. Research supported through this competition may help develop new technologies and methods for decoding the communication of various species, potentially aiding biodiversity conservation and improving animal welfare. Such initiatives underscore the importance of scientific research in addressing global environmental challenges and the need for interdisciplinary approaches to solving them.