Project CETI is harnessing AI to understand the complex communication system of sperm whales . In a new study, the project's scientists used AI to decode thousands of sperm whale clicks. Whales are highly intelligent, social creatures, so it makes sense that their songs and clicks are probably more than just random sounds.
But just how complex is whale speak ? Researchers from Project Cetacean Echolocation Translation Initiative (CETI) are closer than ever to finding out by deciphering that language. Using AI to decode clicks from sperm whales, the scientists discovered a sophisticated alphabet hidden in the animals' sounds. That alphabet is the fundamental communications system of the sperm whale, David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI, told Business Insider.
"It shows that there's a lot of information that can be carried, and they're living very complicated, interactive social lives," he said. But this is just the beginning. Building this phonetic alphabet into their AI models should allow Project CETI to dive even deeper into the intricacies of whale speak, helping humans better understand and protect these gentle giants.
Cracking the codas Sperm whales are the loudest animals in the ocean, filling the seas with codas — short bursts of rapid clicks that resemble Morse Code. And similar to Morse Code , their clicks are what they mainly use to communicate and socialize with other sperm whales. The researchers used AI to analyze and look for patterns in roughly.