For a semiotic of opacity

The role of biosemiotics between AI and animal communication

Datos Bibliográficos

ID22022909
AutoresNicola Zengiaro (0000-0003-3268-7567, Department of Medical Sciences, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen21
Número4
Páginas567-594
Fecha de publicación2025-12-18
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaChinese Semiotic Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2198-9605 • E-ISSN: 2198-9613
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/css-2025-0009
OpenAlexW4417428335
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas50

This article critically examines AI-driven projects that aim to translate animal communication (e.g., CETI, NatureLM, ISPA), highlighting their reliance on reductive linguistic and computational models. Drawing on biosemiotic theory, especially the concepts of Umwelt , semiotic freedom, and biotranslation, I argue that these approaches misrepresent animal semiosis by treating it as codifiable and referential, ignoring its embodied, affective, and ecological nature. Methodologically, the paper combines general semiotic and biosemiotic analysis with case studies from current AI research, introducing the notion of semiotic opacity as a theoretical counterpoint to assumptions of transparency. Rather than enabling meaningful interspecies understanding, AI systems risk simulating communication while erasing difference. I propose reframing AI not as a translator, but as a mediator within a trilateral semiotic relation (human, animal, machine) guided by ecological and interpretive responsibility. Biosemiotics thus offers a critical and conceptual framework to rethink interspecies interfaces beyond anthropocentric paradigms

Anthropocentrism · Biosemiotics · Cognitive reframing · Philosophy of biology · Philosophy of science · Semiosis · Semiotics · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Language and cultural evolution · Origins and Evolution of Life