NYU Scholars Explore Legal Rights for Whales as AI Decodes Their Speech

Marine biologists and legal experts collaborate to consider the future of 'more-than-human rights' for whales and other animals.

Published on Feb. 19, 2026

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An international collaboration between marine biologists using AI to decode whale speech and NYU law scholars is exploring the future of legal personhood and rights for whales and other animals. The effort, which builds on precedents for animal rights in jurisdictions like Ecuador, aims to better understand animals and help them flourish, as well as reconnect humans with the 'more-than-human world'.

Why it matters

As technology like AI advances our ability to communicate with and understand animals, it raises important questions about the legal and ethical status of non-human entities. This collaboration seeks to push the boundaries of environmental law and philosophy to consider granting certain animals, like whales, the legal rights and protections typically reserved for humans.

The details

The collaboration stems from a chance meeting between David Gruber, the head of Project CETI which uses AI to decode whale speech, and NYU law professor Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito, who leads an effort called MOTH exploring 'more-than-human rights'. The two realized their interdisciplinary work complemented each other in expanding our understanding of animals and their potential for legal personhood. While the US has not yet recognized an animal as a legal person, other jurisdictions like Ecuador have granted constitutional rights to nature and specific animals.

  • The collaboration was formed in 2026 after Gruber and Rodríguez-Garavito met at a conference in Los Angeles.
  • Ecuador recognized rights of nature in its constitution in 2008, setting a precedent for animal rights.

The players

David Gruber

The head of Project CETI, which uses AI to decode whale speech.

Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito

A law professor at NYU who leads the MOTH effort exploring 'more-than-human rights'.

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What they’re saying

“Both are highly interdisciplinary, and both are working at the edges of their fields to expand what's possible in scholarship and practice—in law and the social sciences and philosophy in our case, and in his case, marine biology, AI studies, robotics, and linguistics.”

— Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito, NYU Law Professor (NYU News)

“The two groups engage in interdisciplinary conversation about what it means to understand animals more fully. So there is a descriptive scientific component to our collaboration, but we are also very much looking for ways for science to help animals flourish and to help humans to reconnect with the more-than-human world.”

— Cesar Rodríguez-Garavito, NYU Law Professor (NYU News)

What’s next

The collaboration plans to continue its interdisciplinary research and advocacy efforts to explore the legal and ethical implications of granting whales and other animals greater rights and protections.

The takeaway

As advances in technology like AI allow us to better understand and communicate with animals, it is prompting a rethinking of the legal and philosophical status of non-human entities. This collaboration represents a pioneering effort to push the boundaries of environmental law and ethics to consider granting certain animals, like whales, the rights and personhood typically reserved for humans.