Robots Invent Their Own Language

They randomly assigned names to places on a map (and then reconciled the names with each other so all the robots were using the same names). Which is impressive, but nothing like what the article claims.

There is a legitimate benefit to developing sound recognition capabilities in machines. Sound is a very real part of the world around us. Most lifeforms capable of communication do so through sound. The sense of sound is a very important way of interacting with the environment. For these reasons, among others, robots will probably need sound-processing capabilities to successfully and fully navigate the world around them.

As for whether they need sound-based languages, that's a good question. Presumably the folks developing AI would like to keep that AI at least somewhat anthropomorphized, so that we will always have a sense for what the robots are doing. It's much easier to interact with, and teach, a robot when we're capable of communicating with it on a common ground.