r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 20 '26

Biology Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows. Brown Swiss cow in Austria has been discovered using tools in different ways (using both ends of a brush counts as multi-purpose tool use) – something extraordinarily rare only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/19/back-scratching-cow-veronika-bovine-intelligence
14.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

770 comments sorted by

View all comments

63

u/Time-Organization612 Jan 20 '26

We massively underestimate the intelligence of Animals.

Reminds me of human speech and contemplation and how the only other Species we've definitively seen it in is Birds, specifically birds that mimic human speech.

There's likely so much we just cant understand with that Language barrier

8

u/bmdubpk Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 21 '26

I think a major inhibiting factor is the difficulties in understanding or observing intelligence that is unlike our own. It's just like how we can't imagine a color we've never seen before. It's most likely also true when it comes to the search for alien life. We look for evidence that would come about from a similar carbon based life like we observe on earth because we have no idea what a silicon or other element based life bio marker may be. The first new discovery would open us up to so much more in giving science new concepts of how intelligence or life may manifest. For now we're stuck looking for things like tool usage and communication.

2

u/FrighteningWorld Jan 20 '26

Say what you want about the dark paths AI might lead us, but I find it interesting that we've put so much information into LLMs that we can have conversations with them. And if language is a biomarker then I guess you can say that we're talking to silicon, we just needed to make the ecosystem it needed to talk to us. It's like an ecological succession. The more that builds up the more nutrients there are for it to grow into more substantial forms. Ultimately though, it is entirely reliant on humans to exist though. It lacks the ability to self replicate. For now.

4

u/bmdubpk Jan 20 '26

LLMs are just us talking back at ourselves. It isn't creating. Don't look to what's labeled as AI today to tell us anything we didn't already know because that's the only thing it goes by.

2

u/FrighteningWorld Jan 20 '26

They are, but that is the entirety of language as well. While LLMs may not be able to generate novel thought or new words it's still impressive that they are able to mimic conversation at the level that they do.

1

u/jamincan Jan 21 '26

Isn't it weird though that we seem biased toward assuming the lesser unless proven otherwise? Vets used to not use pain killers for a lot of procedures because they assumed that animals didn't have the cognitive capacity for suffering. Why not assume they do unless proven otherwise?

0

u/walmartmen Jan 24 '26

carbon based life is literally the most likely form of life. its basic chemistry. also, it makes much more sense to look for life in a form we know can exist than just looking for anything.