What happens when your dog uses the internet | Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas

In this TED Talks Daily episode, host Elise Hu introduces a talk by computer scientist Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, who explores the idea of a social internet for animals. Ilyena shares her research on providing animals with technology to improve their lives and give them more control, including their social interactions. She discusses experiments with dogs and white-faced saki monkeys, where devices were created to allow them to interact with videos and audio. Ilyena also details a project involving parrots using video calls to interact with each other, revealing that they have favorite friends and engage in social behaviors like grooming and playing together. The talk concludes with the potential benefits of this technology for animals in various settings, such as veterinary clinics and zoos, and highlights the social awareness and complex needs of animals.