I misread this as AI initially ...

The only art-centric monkey I knew was Koko, the female gorilla.

Here she draws some things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iixL0CMOAM

Smartest monkey I ever saw was Kanzi though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENKinbfgrkU

I think it is only a question and matter of time before the prison systems for monkeys may have to be reconsidered completely. Of course even smarter monkeys than Kanzi won't reach human brain functions, but they are also very convincingly extremely clever and can adapt. Numerous videos where monkeys handle (!) smartphones show this already and this is just the beginning. Like, in the movie Planet of the Apes. Just long-term in smaller steps.

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conception 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Fun fact! Koko’s abilities to sign and communicate were a total fraud!

https://bigthink.com/life/ape-sign-language/

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junon 3 hours ago | parent [-]

To dismiss it as total fraud is disingenuous, but I do agree that the personification of some of those videos is quite egregious. I don't think anyone expected a chimp to make coherent, grammatically correct sentences. But the relationship between sign/vocalization and emotion/desire is strong and seen in many animals, such as parrots. It depends on your definition of communication I suppose.

	▲	OkayPhysicist an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The main issue wasn't grammatical correctness, it was being grammatical at all. It's not surprising that an animal can learn individual pieces of vocabulary: anybody whose dog loses its mind when the word "walk" is mentioned, or watched meerkats for significant periods of time can observe vocabulary in animals. Koko was intended to be taught grammar, specifically the ability to express new thoughts by combining her vocabulary in an ordered way. Despite Francine Patterson's best efforts to convince the world otherwise, Koko never achieved this.
	▲	conception an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		There’s no evidence that KoKo ever communicated a word and had understanding of what the word meant outside of basic Pavlovian associations.
	▲	moi2388 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Is it? Afaik they didn’t actually sign anything other than random words, an “food” every second word or so..

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ChrisMarshallNY 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Don't call him a monk- aaaaarghhh...

https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/The_Librarian

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bicolao 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I misread this as AI initially ...

The japanese have it harder because "ai" means love. But perhaps "love" will be written in kanji while "AI" in katakana, so writing form is not confusing.

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dejj 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"I think this was a powerful lesson on the dangers of AI. Which by the way means 'love' in Chinese."

Elon Tusk, Rick and Morty, S4E4: https://youtu.be/xQHCz9ZZorA?t=129

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navigate8310 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Here's Rambo, an orangutan, driving a golf cart in Dubai: https://youtu.be/ERTrOwEb5M8

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brap 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Koko, that chimp’s alright.

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bbor 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And before someone comes in to correct: yes, we're monkeys. No, the taxonomists don't know any better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey

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jennyholzer6 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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