Opinion | If You Want to Understand AI, Get a Dog

Cory Miller

Oct. 5, 2026 4:45 pm ET

As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous, we face a fundamental question: What is going on inside these new “minds”? The path to answering it may come from an unlikely source: man’s best friend.

Dogs are the result of thousands of years of behavioral engineering. Wolves’ domestication didn’t simply make them friendlier. We selected animals that could thrive in our social world. Dogs became extraordinarily sensitive to human behavior, following our gazes and gestures and learning our patterns. We also shaped the other side of that relationship, selecting dogs that communicated in ways humans could readily understand. This creates the irresistible illusion that dogs think like us.

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Appeared in the October 6, 2026, print edition as 'If You Want to Understand AI, Get a Dog'.