Dancing bees could supercharge AI revolution

When bumblebees aren’t hard at work pollinating our crops, you can find them tapping their six legs to pop music.

A study published Friday found that bumblebees can learn and recognize rhythmic patterns at different speeds and sensations.

It was previously thought that only humans, as well as a few mammals and songbirds, had the ability to grasp concepts such as time and rhythm.

But after Macquarie University scientist Andrew Barron and collaborators from Southern Medical University tested some bees, it looks like the humble bumblebee and hundreds of other animals could soon be added to the list.

“Rhythms are everywhere in nature… Before this study we had assumed that such behavior was some kind of innate fixed behavioral pattern,” Prof Barron told AAP.

“This study challenges that assumption… We don’t know how many other animals can do this.”

In the study, bees were trained to forage from artificial flowers equipped with flashing lights, leading to a sugary reward, even at varying speeds, after learning a specific pattern.

They were then trained to recognize repeated vibrations on the floor of a maze and then visually translate the patterns using flashing lights.

Prof Barron said such a feat was previously believed only humans could do.

In humans, this ability is used in activities such as driving a car or learning a dance routine by watching dance moves and listening to songs.

Prof Barron is excited about what the findings could mean for the development of artificial intelligence.

“The bee brain is very small and operates at tens of milliwatts, so there must be some tricks the bees do to speed up their learning,” Prof Barron said.

“If we can equip AI with the ability to abstract rhythms, a wide variety of applications could emerge in the future.”