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selectiveyellow t1_ixn3n9m wrote

Reply to comment by snoozieboi in New AI Tech Allows Humans to Talk to Animals by 4inalfantasy

After Rise of the Planet of the Apes came out, Koko's handlers unironically produced a video of Koko criticizing humanity, just a whole political speech.

Outside of that, I think Koko was pretty good at asking for oranges. Honestly, language is hard and it's difficult to tell a gorilla what they're allowed to do.

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snoozieboi t1_ixncg20 wrote

All I remember from a documentary was Koko having fits and just like a kid choosing to just using the word for "poop" over and over, pretty much like my nephews.

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wedontlikespaces t1_ixncgwn wrote

Gorillas are interesting because they actually possess the necessary vocal cords for language, but more recent study using the whole Koko thing, have proven they don't possess the corresponding language centre in the brain. It's like they are waiting to evolve.

More accurately the vocal cords evolved much earlier in evolutionary history for some other, unknown, purpose and were "repurposed" later on for speech when we evolved the language centre in the brain, which tends to happen a lot in evolution.

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