You might not think that artificial intelligence has much to do with puzzle-solving parrots, but that's exactly what our two guests today combine in their envelope-pushing research. The team is led by Alex Kacelnik who specializes in animal behaviour, and Oliver Brock, who is an expert in robotics and AI.

Their research involves filming cockatoo parrots as they solve novel kinetic mechanical problems. This video is then analyzed and used to help create a robot powered by artificial intelligence that can solve similar problems. In the process, they're exploring some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence.

Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Oxford, and Oliver Brock, Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, talk about their interdisciplinary project “Parrobots – Understanding physical problem solving in parrots and robots”.