OK, so, the bird in the video is not the same bird in the original shaming picture–the original shamed bird is Larry, and the one in the video is Bibi. So, while Larry’s order is still, alas, a mystery, it has opened up a whole new and interesting thing–
If you watch Bibi’s video in youtube and look in the related videos column, you’ll see videos of other birds playing around with Alexa. And I actually wasted spent a bit of time watching a lot of these because bird behavior is my jam.
Basically, we now have multiple anecdotes of birds playing around with Alexa. And while it’s true that most of them are probably just imitating what their humans have said, the fact remains that they are establishing a cause-and-effect association with Alexa. “If I say this, this human tool will light up and do things.”
Even tiny birds like finches can establish cause-and-effect relationships; the level of thinking that goes on in parrots, which have proportionally larger brains (along with corvids) is incredible. It’s also noteworthy that a lot of the videos are of African gray parrots, which, through the research of Dr. Irene Pepperberg and @alexfoundation, we know to have the intelligence capability of a preschool human.
And while tool use has always been an indicator of animal intelligence, these birds are learning to utilize a sophisticated piece of human technology–not even fellow apes could use this technology, as they can’t create the same sounds as humans can, and yet these parrots, with brains significantly smaller than apes, are learning and succeeding on account of their ability to reproduce our vocalizations. If given the chance, I think domesticated corvids could learn, too, and that would be an amazing potential avenue of research for both corvids and parrots, especially as AI becomes more prevalent.
It also gives new things for bird owners to consider–simply put, you don’t want to connect an AI to your home security system and have your bird learn to activate the panic button in the middle of the night…
(Side note, given that one of the most famous smart parrots was named Alex, it just seems right that these birds are playing around with an AI called Alexa).
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