FT Tech Tonic Can AI help us speak to animals? Part one
14 snips
Sep 19, 2023 Hardware and software advancements in bioacoustics may enable us to 'translate' animal sounds into human language. The podcast delves into deciphering codas in sperm whale communication and the role of AI in understanding their messages. It also explores transformers, a breakthrough technology treating everything as a language. The podcast concludes by discussing the ethical implications of using AI synthesized voices to communicate with animals.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Sperm Whale Communication Experience
- Shane Gero has studied sperm whales near Dominica for over 20 years, knowing individual whales personally.
- He records their clicking codas, which function like Morse code, to decode their communication patterns.
Whale Dialects and Social Clans
- Sperm whales use specific coda patterns to identify vocal clans, showing a social divide.
- Whales with the same codas associate, while differing codas indicate distinct groups.
Playful Whale Conversations
- Two young sperm whale calves were recorded conversing for 40 minutes, playing like children.
- This moment underscored the meaningful social communication happening underwater.