September Reflections

I have always been curious about how animals communicate. For example, do different cat “meows” correspond to different feelings? How do visual cues help animals to convey their meaning? Are there any major similarities between a species’ communication system and human language beyond the physical aspects of sound creation? My original instinct was that the answer to the latter question had to be no. After all, animals do not have the same ability to utilise organised language to express developed ideas, right? Well, reading BBC’s article “The sperm whale 'phonetic alphabet' revealed by AI” has made me rethink this perspective.

The article begins by describing how difficult it is to study sperm whales, as they have deep diving habits and can hold their breath for hours. However, thanks to advancements in Artificial Intelligence, researchers have been able to gain a better understanding of the species’ communication and its hidden complexities, including decoding a “sperm whale phonetic alphabet”. The Dominica Sperm Whale Project was initiated in 2005 by Shane Gero and involved studying approximately 400 sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean. While it was already known that sperm whales communicate using rhythmic systems of clicks named codas, scientists believed that the whales only had 21 coda types. Now, the researchers have identified over 150 distinct codas, with their building blocks acting similarly to phonemes, the units of sound in human language. AI was able to capture the subtle variations in the vocalisations of the codas, from varied tempo to an added click at the end, highlighting that codas may carry more information than previously believed.

It was also found that the sperm whale “phonemes” could be combined in different ways, which is a prerequisite for a linguistic phenomenon assumed to be unique to human language: duality of patterning. There is no direct evidence of this yet, but it appears that the basic sets of features form codas, which then form coda sequences, which is similar to how phonemes create words and in turn sentences. Despite these findings, more research is needed to ensure that we are not wrongly considering the species on a single dimension relative to humans. For example, some believe that analysing the relationship between rhythm-based communication and music may be a more accurate way of looking at sperm whale communication. However, all these discoveries are still a major step in the right direction when it comes to better understanding sperm whales, which could aid in their conservation, especially as they face modern threats like climate change and ocean pollution.

All in all, Artificial Intelligence is not only connected to language with fields like Natural Language Processing, but can also help us gain a better understanding of animal communication. There is likely much more nuance that lies in animal communication than we realise today, and even if their systems do not work exactly like ours, the BBC article illustrates the potential of animals to convey detailed messages. By continuing to research this field, we could gain greater insight into specific species as a whole and find answers to other underlying questions we may have about their behaviours, social structures and more.

Credit: Rachel Gordon (MIT CSAIL)

Works Cited

Latham , Katherine, and Anna Bressanin. “The Sperm Whale “Phonetic Alphabet” Revealed by AI.” BBC, 11 July 2024, www.bbc.com/future/article/20240709-the-sperm-whale-phonetic-alphabet-revealed-by-ai. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

Rendell, Luke. “Are We Really about to Talk to Whales?” The Conversation, 16 May 2024, theconversation.com/are-we-really-about-to-talk-to-whales-229778. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.