Merging AI, whale communication in search for universal language

Researchers are venturing into uncharted waters, blending marine biology with artificial intelligence in an ambitious effort to unravel the secrets of whale communication.

This pioneering work not only illuminates our understanding of marine life but also may hold keys to interspecies and even extraterrestrial communication.

In the waters off southeast Alaska, a team of scientists, including Josie Hubbard from the University of California, Davis, achieved a groundbreaking interaction with a humpback whale.

Hubbard vividly describes this moment, "It's like experiencing another world. You hear them come up to the surface. Then there's this big breath, you can see it, and they're all together as a group. It's just incredible."

This interaction, where a whale named Twain responded to a recorded humpback greeting call, marked a profound moment in the study of whale communication.

Meanwhile, David Gruber's team, operating more than 5,000 miles (804.6 kilometers) away, employs artificial intelligence to decode the communication of sperm whales near Dominica. The Cetacean Translation Initiative (Ceti), established in 2020, harnesses machine learning to parse these whales' complex click patterns.

Gruber discusses the challenge and fascination of their work: "It's difficult for us to peer into their world, other than these very brief interactions at the surface. This is such a unique, gentle creature, and there's just so much going on."

This research has broader implications for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), suggesting that the complex and intelligent messages of whales might resemble languages used by extraterrestrial beings.

These studies are set to achieve more than just understanding marine mammals; they offer insights into the universal aspects of communication.

By analyzing whale sounds, the researchers aim to decipher complex, intelligent messages similar to human languages, offering potential analogies for extraterrestrial communication.

This work suggests that the intricate cognitive abilities of whales could be akin to those of other intelligent beings, both on Earth and potentially elsewhere in the universe.

As research in this field advances, it brings to light the deep cognitive capabilities of whales, posing fascinating questions about intelligence, language and inter-species communication. 

Source: Newsroom