Scientists could soon be speaking to dolphins thanks to AI

Scientists may soon be able to understand the fascinating way dolphins chat with the help of artificial intelligence.

Dolphins are the highly intelligent chatterbox creatures of the sea, known for their complex social behaviour, signature whistle “names” and clicks and sounds that shape their lives in the water.

A new AI model developed by Google is set to crack the code of one of the ocean’s most sophisticated forms of communication. The technology company worked in collaboration with researchers from Georgia Tech and the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP).

Dolphins use a bunch of different high-frequency sounds to attract a mate, maintain social harmony within a group, and to find friends. WDP has collected a wealth of data on dolphin vocalisations and started to identify patterns, such as signature whistles that mothers and calves use to find each other.

The WDP also found that dolphins would use burst-pulse “squawks” during fights, and click “buzzes” when courting a mate, or chasing sharks.

Scientists hope that by using advanced audio technology with the help of AI, the model being developed will be able to turn dolphin sounds into a format that can be analysed. This should hopefully make it easier to spot patterns and meanings. Incredibly, DolphinGemma can run directly on the smartphones used by field researchers in the wild.

DolphinGemma is being trained on Atlantic spotted dolphins, however the team has hopes to apply the findings to other cetacean species, such as bottlenose or spinner dolphins. The researchers hope that the AI model will uncover what dolphins are really saying.

It will use a large language model - a kind of computer program that’s great at finding patterns in complex information, such as dolphin vocalisations. Similar to how ChatGPT is trained to understand human language, DolphinGemma is designed to spot patterns, sound combinations, and clues in dolphin chatter.

This helps researchers go beyond just recording dolphin sounds – they’ll be able to explore how these sounds might work like a language.

As scientists dive deeper into dolphin dialogue, we know that the ocean’s most talkative residents still have plenty to say. Maybe one day we might be able to have a cross-species chat.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

You should also read:

• Dolphins ‘smile’ during play, scientists find
• Scientists record 'lonely' bottlenose dolphin talking to himself in the ocean

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