Two AI chatbots speaking to each other in their own special language is the last thing we need

(Image credit: Gibberlink)

GibberLink lets AI chatbots communicate without words
ElevenLabs hackathon prompts the creation of GGWave
The ChatBots use a new communication protocol

Imagine if two AIs could chat with each other in a language no human could understand. Right. Now go hide under the covers.

If you've called customer service in the last year or so, you've probably chatted with an AI. In fact, the earliest demonstrations of powerful large language models showed off how such AIs could easily fool human callers. There are now so many AI chatbots out there handling customer service that two of them are bound to dial each other up, and now, if they do, they can do it in their own special, sonic language.

Developers at the ElevenLabs 2025 Hackathon recently demonstrated GibberLink. Here's how it works, according to a demonstration they provided on YouTube.

Two AI agents from ElevenLabs (we've called them the best speech synthesis startup) call each other about a hotel booking. When they realize they are both AI assistants, they switch to a higher-speed audio communication called GGWave. According to a post on Reddit, GGWave is "a communication protocol that enables data transmission via sound waves."

In the video, the audio tones that replace spoken words sound a bit like old-school modem handshake protocols.

It's hard to say if GGWave and Gibberlink are any faster than speech, but the developers claim the GGWave is cheaper because it no longer relies on the GPU to interpret the speech and can instead rely on the less resource-intensive CPU.

The group shared their code on GitHub in case anyone wants to try building this communication protocol for their own chatting AI chatbots.

Since these were ElevenLabs AI Agents, there's no indication that GibberLink would work with ChatGPT or Google Gemini, though I'm sure some will soon try similar GGWave efforts with these and other generative AI chatbots.

Two AI agents on a phone call realize they’re both AI and switch to a superior audio signal ggwave - YouTube

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What are they saying?!

A pair of Artificial intelligence Assistants "speaking" their unintelligible language sounds like a recipe for disaster. Who knows what these chatbots might get up to? After they're done booking that hotel room, what if they decide to empty the user's bank account and then use the funds to buy another computer to add a third GGWave "voice" to the mix?

Ultimately, this is a cool tech demonstration that doesn't have much purpose beyond proving it can be done. It has, though, succeeded in making people a little nervous.

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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.