Artificial intelligence is helping researchers identify patterns in the clicks and whistles of Atlantic spotted dolphins, bringing scientists closer to understanding how the animals communicate. Dennis Helsing, founder and director of the Wild Dolphin Project, has spent decades studying dolphin sounds and is now working with scientists at Georgia Tech and Google DeepMind to give structure to dolphin language—although a full translation remains far away.
Using AI to study dolphin communication
Helsing began thinking about marine mammal communication after hearing the distinctive clicks and whistles of dolphins during a 1985 trip to the Bahamas to study Atlantic spotted dolphins.
After 40 years of research, Helsing told an audience at the WIRED World’s Fair that AI has provided a powerful new way to analyze dolphin sounds. The research group has collected countless videos and audio recordings and is working to identify patterns in the animals’ communication.
“With AI, you can find patterns,” Helsing said. “This is a powerful new tool, and I personally have been waiting for it.”
Testing two-way communication
The researchers have also used their findings to begin experimenting with two-way communication. They equipped underwater wearable computers with the ability to play dolphin sounds, including sounds associated with objects such as scarves and habitats such as sargassum, a type of seaweed.
In one experiment, two researchers modeled an exchange: One made a sound associated with a scarf, while the other played with the item. The researchers then observed how the dolphins responded.
However, distinguishing communication from imitation remains a major challenge.
“Even if we have these whistles and we label the toys, there’s a big difference between imitating them and understanding their function,” Helsing said. “It’s hard to do that in nature.”
Studying dolphins in protected areas or more controlled environments could help researchers identify that difference, Helsing said.
A long way from conversation
What dolphins actually say to one another remains largely unknown. Helsing’s team has found communication patterns, but a genuine two-way conversation is still a long way off. Although scientists have made considerable progress in understanding dolphin social hierarchy and behavior, much more research is needed before conversation with dolphins becomes possible.
“The data and structure may be there, but what does it mean in dolphin culture?” Helsing said. “That would be an exploration in itself.”
What dolphin research could teach humans
Being able to communicate with dolphins would be a remarkable scientific achievement, but attempts to understand the animals could also reveal more about humans and our relationship with Earth.
When Helsing asks people what they think dolphins would say to humans, the most common answer is: “Dolphins would say, ‘Why are you messing up our oceans?’”
That answer, Helsing said, “tells us a lot about how we think about the world.”
Source: www.wired.com