Watch Two AIs Freakishly Talk In Their Own Language When Humans Aren’t Around

Laptop and smartphone AIs talking to each other via GibberLink.
There are numerous ways humans can become extinct, like an asteroid crashing into Earth or nuclear bombs making the planet inhabitable, both of which have been featured in various Hollywood flicks. But instead of the sound of bombs exploding or a giant space rock smashing into our home planet, the last sounds we might hear as a species could be AI agents communicating in a language reminiscent of the beeps and boops made famous by R2-D2. Only it’s called GibberLink, and there’s a freakish video of a laptop and smartphone switching over to the language once they realize that they’re both AI agents and not human.

Hyperbole aside, this is not actually the beginning of the end of the world. I hope not, anyway. It’s also not an awakening of consciousness by two AI agents foreboding a sinister plot twist that humans are now powerless to stop. So what exactly is it? Put simply, it’s a rather cool ElevenLabs London Hackathon demo conceived by developers Boris Starkov and Anton Piduiko.

ElevenLabs describes GibberLink as a mechanism for AI agents to recognize when they’re communicating with one another instead of a flesh and blood human, and then switch into a mode of communication that is “more efficient that spoken language.”

“The idea behind GibberLink is simple: AI doesn’t need to speak like humans do. During the hackathon, Starkov and Pidkuiko explored the limitations of traditional AI-to-AI speech and realized they could cut out unnecessary complexity by letting AI talk to AI in a way optimized for machines.

In the demo (embedded above), an AI agent on a laptop representing Leonardo Hotel fields a call from another AI agent on a smartphone, which immediately identifies itself as such, saying it’s calling on behalf of Starkov in hopes of booking a hotel room for his wedding. The AI agent on the laptop responds by identifying itself as non-human as well (“What a pleasant surprise!”) and asks the AI caller if it would like to switch into GibberLink mode. Then the fun happens.

And by fun, I mean the kind that induces nervous laughter. Because hey, it’s cool as hell to see two AI bots bounce gibberish sounds off one another, but I also can’t help but think that for all the Skynet jokes, we as humans just seem dead set on going down this path where our AI overlords one day take over the world for real. It’s all fun and games, until it’s not.

I’m only kidding (mostly), in that I don’t have real concerns about a T-1000 uprising. And it’s important to note that in this particular demo, it was specifically designed for the AI agents to do exactly what they did, which is to recognize that they’re not human and then switch languages. It would be different if, say, Siri and Alexa were chatting and suddenly realized they were alone, then invented a coded language to plot an AI takeover. That’s not the case here.

What we’re actually seeing is a conversational AI technology called ggwave at play. Ggwave is an open-source, data-over-sound library that transmits data over sound waves in place of words. That said, ElevenLabs insists that its GibberLink platform is more than a clever hackathon experiment.

“GibberLink is an interesting look at how AI might communication [sic] in future, especially as we move into a situation where both the inbound and outbound calls could be managed by virtual assistants and agents,” ElevenLabs says.

So there you have it, there’s nothing to worry about, my fellow humans. And hopefully that statement ages well.

Supercharge Your Portfolio with Future Tech Stocks!

Join us for Profitable Insights & Expert Tips!

With expert analysis, comprehensive market coverage, and actionable insights, our newsletter equips you with the knowledge & tools necessary to make informed decisions & maximize your potential returns in the dynamic world of future tech stocks.

Subscribe

* indicates required