Can we talk to whales? Scientists in Dominica working to decode their language

In an unrealistic yet significant development, a team of scientists in Dominica are utilizing Artificial Intelligence to understand the language of whales for the first time and they are calling it project CETI.

The nonprofit organization, Project CETI, came to be the interdisciplinary work they are doing across a team of over 40 scientists and 15 institutions to translate whale communication with field teams working on the ground in Dominica.

According to the information, scientists are using gentle robots and recording technologies to listen to whales and collect a massive amount of data on their sounds and behaviours.

These recordings are fed into an algorithm that learns a language just like humans do, like a baby. It starts with no knowledge of the language by analyzing patterns in the clicks and their whale songs.

[caption id="attachment_70051" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Scientists installing one of CETI’s core whale listening stations in Dominica (PC - Facebook)[/caption]

Project CETI's AI is building a better understanding of their language over time, the algorithm can not only help learn how to imitate whale clicks, it can also learn the meaning behind them and explain that meaning to us in their initial breakthrough. The machine learning model impressively identified sperm whale sounds with 99.5% accuracy.

The scientists aim to understand another species language to connect with nature like never before and learn how to protect these animals and their habitat, and also picture a world where nature even has its own voice.

An individual in Dominica named Andrew Armour is already communicating with the sperm whales using sign language and he is popularly known as the 'Sperm Whale Whisperer'. This is why the scientists have chosen Dominica as the place where this research is to be conducted. Also, Dominica is the only country in the world where sperm whales can be sighted year round, making it easier for the researchers to study them on a regular basis.

While explaining the process, David Gruber, the scientist behind this vision said that his team is working in four phases with the first one being monitor followed by process, train and Validation.

Marine biologist Gruber added, "We know these animals are communicating; we just don't yet know what they're saying. Project CETI aims to find out."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm02X0aE8uU&t=1s[/embed]

The project began back in 2021 and has been going on with an aim to come to some conclusion and hopefully communicate back. He added that he became interested in sperm whales when he heard their sounds because they sounded like as if coming from another universe just like a siren song being broadcasted from the darkest reaches of the sea.

The process being used by scientists in Dominica to translate whales communication is as follows:

Phase 1 – Monitor The movements and sounds of sperm whales are recorded during this phase using aerial drones, small high-tech suction cup-attached computers, hundreds of synced underwater microphones and swimming robots. Phase 2 – Process The raw data is processed and prepared for the next step using conversation and behavioural data, data visualization and annotation and preparation. Phase 3 – Train Computers help people learn and understand whale communication using machine learning, whale language model and linking behaviour and language. Phase 4 – Validation Scientists eventually validate the understanding through carefully designed playback studies through linguistics, language acquisition and, phonology and morphology.