The remarkable interaction occurred when Dr. Brenda McCowan and her team from the University of California Davis engaged with a humpback whale named Twain. Using sophisticated underwater speakers, the researchers played a recorded humpback “contact” call into the ocean. To their amazement, Twain approached their boat and began responding, initiating a 20-minute exchange that mirrored human-like conversation patterns.
Dr. McCowan, leading the Whale-SETI project, emphasized the significance of this event : “We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language’.” This breakthrough has not only excited marine biologists but also caught the attention of those involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The Whale-SETI team is employing cutting-edge technology to analyze whale vocalizations :
- Advanced underwater microphones
- Artificial intelligence for pattern recognition
- Information theory and machine learning algorithms
These tools are helping researchers identify complex structures within whale sounds that could resemble language-like communication. Similar AI advancements in music have recently allowed a robot cellist to perform with a symphony orchestra, showcasing the versatility of AI in bridging communication gaps across various domains.
Humpback whales : Earth’s intelligent marine ambassadors
Humpback whales, scientifically known as Megaptera novaeangliae, are renowned for their intelligence and complex social behaviors. Dr. Fred Sharpe from the Alaska Whale Foundation highlighted their remarkable abilities :
| Humpback Whale Characteristics | Description |
|---|---|
| Size | Up to 60 feet long, weighing 40 tons |
| Migration | Travel up to 5,000 miles between feeding and breeding grounds |
| Communication | Complex songs and social calls |
| Tool Use | Create bubble nets for fishing |
These marine giants have demonstrated behaviors that suggest high levels of cognitive ability and social intelligence. Their capacity to engage in a structured exchange with humans further supports the idea that they possess sophisticated communication systems. This insight is crucial not only for marine conservation efforts but also for expanding our understanding of intelligence beyond human paradigms.
Implications for extraterrestrial intelligence search
The successful interaction with Twain has profound implications for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Dr. Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute noted that this encounter supports a key assumption in their search : that intelligent beings would be interested in making contact.
By studying whale communication, researchers hope to develop more effective methods for detecting and interpreting potential signals from outer space. The Whale-SETI project is at the forefront of this interdisciplinary approach, combining marine biology with astrobiology to push the boundaries of our understanding of intelligent life.
The team is now focusing on :
- Analyzing non-audio communication methods, such as bubble rings
- Developing AI algorithms to measure communication complexity
- Exploring parallels between whale songs and potential extraterrestrial signals
This innovative research, supported by the Templeton Foundation Diverse Intelligences Program, is paving the way for new approaches in the quest to answer one of humanity’s most profound questions : Are we alone in the universe ?
A new era of interspecies understanding
The successful dialogue with Twain represents more than just a scientific achievement; it’s a paradigm shift in how we perceive and interact with other intelligent species on our planet. As we develop the tools and methodologies to communicate with whales, we’re not only gaining insights into marine life but also preparing ourselves for potential future encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence.
This breakthrough serves as a reminder of the incredible diversity of intelligence on Earth and the importance of preserving it. As we continue to explore the depths of our oceans and the vastness of space, the lessons learned from our marine counterparts may prove invaluable in decoding the mysteries of the cosmos and our place within it.
A 20 minute conversation where the AI had no idea what the whale was saying, right? My wife has conversations daily with our pets. It’s the same outcome. Who knows what Meow really means in cat-speak?
What did they talk about!? How can you write a whole article about a 20 minute conversation with whales and not discuss what they said!?
What did the whale say??
Did the whale understand that he was speaking to a human?
WHAT DID THEY SAY TO EACH OTHER?!?!?!
If this conversation between AI and a whale is such a big deal, a transcript of the conversation is necessary. Failure to provide a transcript of the conversation is like reporting that humans had a conversation with aliens from another planet and saying nothing more. Does that make sense to anyone?
Aliens don’t exist and this wasn’t a conversation.
I understand that there was no conversation too understand,but it’s a start in the right direction,.
I believe this will lead to more developments that will give us a better idea on how species interact.
Whale:
YES?
HUMAN:
SUP?
WHALE:
STOP WHALING, YOU DICKS!!
HUMAN:
OH UHH…
NO HABLA WHALE
We couldn’t get a transcript be cause it was waiting for moderation
Hello! What was said? I’m with Fred!
FFS, what did the whale say? Anything about climate change or how we ate their family and destroyed their food? What did the AI say, “That wasn’t me, that was the evil humans. I’ll tell them we didn’t understand each other so they will try this again and we can plot our revenge.”?
they had a heart to heart talk on the history of whales
Why don’t they focus on communicating with the animals on the Earth before communicating with aliens. Focus on what we have here. All this talk about moving to Mars and colonizing it is stupid why don’t we just fix our own 4.5 billion year old planet that we’ve managed to ruined in a measly 200 years. Their priorities are definitely going in the wrong direction. And yeah, what did the whale say?
How you know aliens don’t exist? I’m sure they do in the vast cosmos, will we ever be able to interact with them? Probably not if the speed of light is truly a limit that cannot be broken. But the universe is massive and we exist so it’s possible and there are trillion of stars inside billions of galaxies where untold billions of planets are gravitationaly bound to and some must be in the right place for that star to support the conditions for life
Like no telemetry days from the moon landing… Any transcript?
Do you REALLY want to know what the whale said?? What if it said this – Stop killing us and messing up the world – now what does the human race do??
Mind blowing if we can speak properly and actually understand one another.
Next – what is my dog saying to me!
I think there was a zoom conversation between two stoners who were like “Whoa what if we could like talk to whales” and the other one was like… “Dude, what if aliens talk like whales,… then we could talk to them too!”, and then zoom AI companion summarized that conversation into this article.
So they didn’t actually have a “conversation”. They used frequencies they’ve heard these whales make upon meeting and called a whale. But no exchange of dialogue ever occurred. This is just shameful reporting…
Maybe it’s too foreign for us to recognize as language except by some abstract metric, but it would be nice if they would have at least tried to show us the convo. I imagine it’s similar to talking to an African Grey or few moments of surprising clarity in understanding with pet commands and requests. Probably what we regard as language is extremely manipulative and rude for them, given what we use it for…and similarly our biases might find what they are using it for less advanced… but for their purposes very meaningful and informative.
IS THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT WE MAY BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER SPECIES LIKE DOGS, CATS, BEES, ANTS, ETC.?
It’s like an American man who goes to Spain only speaking English how in the world are they going to communicate and understand each other. Every pod is different as well as methods and understanding.
How can they even understand each other. The whale in captivity probably wasn’t even taught his pods language. It’s like a man that goes to Spain only speaking English and communicates in Spanish.
Very much appreciated! It would be very, very worthwhile to regard other specious as fully conscious and sentient beings, same as humans. There is a vast treasure trove of cultures to explore and communicate with. It is incredibly immensely wasteful to just kill them.
There will come a time when humans will recognize this, and they will weep over it, except if the stupidity of humans will have made themselves extinct, of course, which could also be very likely.
lol. ChatGPT created a 20 minute manufactured conversation essentially telling the researches what they wanted to hear.
I believe, that if this remarkable conversation happened, it’s imparitive that this phenomenon be shared with the world. I think it’s imparitive that the human race get a full understanding of the intelligence of these mammals. They just might have something to say, and “feelings” to share.
We just might learn something truly beautiful from these wonderful creatures.
A Tiny bit of digging shows that the scientists basically sent out a known whale greating (If you watch an animal long enough you can pretty much see what certain noises and movements mean, it’s not acutely that hard to do!), which the Whale named “Twain” repeated back, with slight variations or inflections on the sound the scientists used (I would imagine it would be like humans saying “Morning, how’s you?” “Morning, good thanks how’s you?” sort of communication).
Twain circled the boat for about 20 minutes, where the “conversation” continued until the whale swam off (If you’re sat there talking to someone for 20 minutes, literally having the same conversation over and over, I’d say Twain has some serious patients because I don’t think I could have hacked it for a minute, let alone 20!).
The AI is being used to “translate” the whale song into something humans can understand, which I would believe will be “educated guesses” on the AI’s part.
And for those who are complaining that this is a waste of time and money.
I guess there’s no actual hope for you, so I suggest you just live your tiny little life in total ignorance and leave all this hard thinking stuff to the rest of us!
Source not provided. I did one quick Google, and the “conversation” appears to be akin to saying the word “hello” for 20 minutes at various intervals (“hello hello!”) and the whale responding like to a Simon Says game.
I’m disappointed in this article and I will tell Google to not recommend this site to me in my newsfeed.
😂 all the comments are singular in complaints- “where is the translation”. If only it were that easy!
It’s worth knowing that AI NLP requires knowledge of grammar, structure and vocabulary to translate, along with large amount of example phrases. Arrival is a great movie that illustrates the difficulty of translation and communication into a wholly new language.
Whales might as well be heptapods! This was a crucial first 20 minutes of data with this humpback to gain some insight into their language. It will take many more interactions (accelerated by AI for sure) to gain communication.
As some said, maybe understanding will stop us from wantonly killing these highly intelligent beings.
“We barked at a dog and the dog barked back “
Actually the whale said “Thanks for all the fish”. Anyone with a babel fish could have understood that.
The amazing headline: “human-whale dialogue, revolutionizing interspecies communication! ”
Yet in all the blah blah in this article, it was never stated what was said/communicated.
Exemplifies the complete lack of journalistic rigor in science story coverage.
The goddamn FIRST thing readers are wanting to know is “WHAT WAS SAID, WHAT DID THE WHALE SAY”.,
And this author just fluffed along with fuzzy wuzzy generalizations about how “cool” it all was.
I guarantee you, this author is a Kamala voter.
What a dumb long article saying almost nothing.