Denise Herzing, founder of the Wild Dolphin Project, is working with Georgia Tech scientists and Google DeepMind to use AI to find patterns in decades of dolphin audio and video. The research has also informed experiments with an underwater computer that plays dolphin sounds associated with objects such as a scarf and sargassum seaweed.
Researchers observe how dolphins respond, but Herzing says they still need to distinguish mimicry from understanding. A two-way conversation is not yet possible, and the meaning of dolphin sounds within dolphin culture remains unclear.
Why it matters
For marine researchers, AI may help organize large collections of dolphin recordings, but the work has not yet shown what the sounds mean to dolphins.
