Dolphins are some of the smartest animals on Earth. For thousands of years, people have admired them for their intelligence, emotions, and the way they interact with humans.
Now, Google is using artificial intelligence (AI) to try to understand how dolphins talk to each other. The goal is that one day, humans might even be able to “talk” with dolphins using this technology.
Google has partnered with researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP), a group in Florida that has been studying dolphin sounds for 40 years. Together, they have created a new AI model called DolphinGemma.
Over the years, WDP noticed that dolphins use different sounds for different situations. For example:
- “Signature whistles” help mothers and babies find each other.
- “Squawks” are often heard when dolphins are fighting.
- “Click buzzes” can happen during courtship or when chasing sharks.
Using all this recorded data, Google trained DolphinGemma to find patterns and structures in the dolphin sounds. The AI will try to group the sounds into categories—similar to how we have words, sentences, and expressions in human language.
DolphinGemma is built on Google’s AI model called Gemma. It also uses technology from Google Pixel phones, which can record clear dolphin sounds without picking up background noise like waves or boat engines. Clean recordings are very important because too much noise can confuse the AI.
In the future, DolphinGemma might even help create a “shared vocabulary” between humans and dolphins by connecting dolphin sounds with objects they like to play with.
Google plans to release DolphinGemma as an open model this summer. This means researchers around the world will be able to use it and even adjust it for studying different types of dolphins, like bottlenose or spinner dolphins.
Google hopes that by sharing this tool, scientists everywhere can learn more about these smart and amazing marine animals.
Source: foxnews
