Artificial intelligence is helping researchers identify patterns in dolphin communication, bringing scientists closer to understanding how the animals use clicks and whistles. The Wild Dolphin Project is working with scientists at Georgia Tech and Google DeepMind to organize decades of recordings and observations, although a true translation of dolphin language—and a two-way conversation—remains far off.
Using AI to study dolphin communication
The research is led by Herzing, founder and director of the Wild Dolphin Project. They began thinking about how marine mammals communicate after hearing the distinctive clicks and whistles of Atlantic spotted dolphins during a 1985 research trip to the Bahamas.
After 40 years of waiting, Herzing told an audience at the WIRED World’s Fair that AI has finally provided new ways to analyze dolphin sounds. Their research group has collected countless videos and audio recordings and is now working with scientists at Georgia Tech and Google DeepMind to give structure to dolphin communication, even though it has not yet been fully translated.
“With AI, you can find patterns,” Herzing said. “This is a powerful new tool, and I personally have been waiting for it.”
Experiments with two-way communication
The researchers have also used their findings to conduct early experiments in two-way communication. They equipped underwater wearable computers with the ability to play dolphin sounds, including sounds associated with objects such as scarves and environments such as sargassum, a type of seaweed.
In one experiment, two researchers modeled an exchange: one played a sound associated with a scarf, and the other responded by playing with the scarf. The researchers then observed how the dolphins reacted.
One challenge is distinguishing communication from imitation. “Even if we have these whistles and we label the toys, there’s a big difference between imitating them and understanding their function,” Herzing said. “It’s hard to do that in nature.”
Studying dolphins in protected areas or more controlled environments may help researchers identify that difference, they said.
Meaning depends on dolphin culture
What dolphins actually say to one another remains largely mysterious. Herzing’s team has identified some patterns, but a genuine two-way conversation is still a long way off. Although researchers have made substantial progress in understanding dolphin social hierarchies and behavior, much more work is needed before conversation becomes possible.
“The data and structure may be there, but what does it mean in dolphin culture?” Herzing said. “That would be an exploration in itself.”
What dolphins might say to humans
Being able to communicate with dolphins would be a remarkable achievement, but efforts to understand them could also reveal more about humans and our relationship with the planet. When Herzing asks people what they think dolphins would say to humans, the most common response is: “Dolphins would say, ‘Why are you messing up our oceans?’”
That answer, Herzing said, “tells a lot about how we think about the world.”
Source: www.wired.com
