AI is Translating Conversations Between Whales

Written by Hassan, Date: 30/10/25

Yo, picture this: You're chilling with your squad, firing off texts in slang only you get, and suddenly Google Translate cracks your code mid-convo. That's basically what's happening underwater right now. With AI blowing up—think ChatGPT spitting Shakespeare or DeepL nailing 100+ languages—scientists are flipping the script on whale chatter. Project CETI is using machine learning to decode sperm whale "talk," turning eerie clicks into what might be full-on sentences.

This ain't sci-fi like Arrival or Star Trek whale episodes. Real deal: In 2024, AI uncovered a "phonetic alphabet" in whale codas, and 2025 updates are pushing toward actual translation. Amid ocean noise pollution wrecking marine life and viral TikToks of "talking" dolphins, this could rewrite conservation. Whales might soon spill: "Yo humans, back off with the ships!" Buckle up—we're diving deep.

thecrimson.com

Are Whales Trying to Tell Us Something? | Magazine | The Harvard ...

Meet Project CETI: The Dream Team Decoding Ocean Gossip

Launched in 2020, CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) is a nonprofit squad of 50+ brainiacs—marine biologists, AI wizards, linguists, roboticists—from Harvard, MIT, Nat Geo, and more. Base camp? Dominica's sperm whale hotspot in the Caribbean. Why sperm whales? Largest brains on the planet (6x human size), social AF, and their clicks travel miles underwater.

Their playbook:

Phase 1: Deploy drones, suction-cup tags, 100s of hydrophones, swimming bots to snag 24/7 audio + behavior data.
Phase 2: Clean and label the chaos—millions of hours.
Phase 3: Train AI "whale LLMs" to spot patterns.
Phase 4: Playback experiments—play whale sounds back and watch reactions, like baby talk tests.

2025 flex: World's first sperm whale ocean reserve in Dominica, thanks to CETI buzz.

Whale Speak Basics: From Clicks to Codas (And That Wild Alphabet)

Sperm whales don't "sing" like humpbacks—they click. A coda? Burst of 3-40 rapid clicks (like Morse code on steroids), used for chit-chat while diving 2 miles deep.

AI game-changer: Sifted 9,000+ recordings from Dominica Sperm Whale Project. Old count: 21 codas. New: 156 distinct types!

The phonetic alphabet bombshell:

Basic units (phonemes): Simple clicks combine like letters into "words" (codas).
Rubato: Speed wobbles mid-coda, like human intonation.
Ornamentation: Extra clicks for flair.
Dialects: Caribbean crews sound different from Pacific pods—like accents.

Check this chart—how AI exploded our understanding:

Dude, it's combinatorial—like English letters making infinite words.

researchgate.net

Spectrogram of the 2fast3+1 sperm whale coda vocalisation with ...

The AI Wizardry: How Tech Turns Noise into Near-Translation

No magic—just massive compute. CETI's models (inspired by GPT) crunch raw audio:

Pattern hunting: Tempo shifts, rhythms non-random.
Context link: Match codas to behaviors (hunting? Family huddle?).
Robo-help: Drones tag whales humanely; bots "rendezvous" for close-ups.

2025 upgrades:

Reinforcement learning for bots shadowing pods.
Ethical AI: 12 principles—no weaponizing, respect Indigenous views.

Tech Tool	Job	Win
Hydrophones	24/7 listening	Millions of codas
Suction Tags	Heart rate + position	Behavior sync
ML Models	Phoneme ID	156+ types
Drones	Non-invasive tags	Safe data grab

Pro tip: AI spots "negative space" between clicks—the pauses pack meaning!

Real Talk: Breakthroughs That'll Blow Your Mind

2023: Filmed whale birth—pod "lifts" calf with codas coordinating.
2024: Alphabet reveal—duality of patterning (sounds → words → sentences?).
2025: Dialect mapping; AI predicts codas from context.

X is lit: Posts like "AI decoding whales = interspecies Zoom calls incoming!"

news.mit.edu

Exploring the mysterious alphabet of sperm whales | MIT News ...

Big Stakes: Saving Whales, Whale Rights, and "Hey Human!"

Conservation crush: 20k whales hit by ships yearly; noise = torture. Decoding proves suffering—"Stop the racket!" could be their plea.

Legal wave: Papers push "rights of nature"—whales as persons (Ecuador-style). Māori already view 'em as kin.

Ethics check: Will we talk back? Playback tests soon. But what if they ghost us?

FAQs: Whale AI Quick Hits

1. Are whales really "talking" like us? Kinda—structured codas with grammar-like rules, but meaning? AI's closing in.

2. How accurate is the translation so far? Patterns nailed (156 codas), full sentences? 2-5 years out.

3. Can other animals get this treatment? Yup—birds, dolphins next. CETI's blueprint.

4. Is it safe for whales? 100% non-invasive—drones, no harpoons.

5. When can we "chat" with whales? Playback experiments 2026; full convo? Decade maybe.

6. Support the mission? Follow CETI, cut plastic, push quiet shipping.

7. Wildest find? Pods have "names" via unique click patterns.

Your Turn: Dive In and Join the Whale Whisperers!

This is humanity's shot at cosmic-level empathy—don't sleep on it. Hit up projectceti.org, blast this post, donate to ocean orgs, or just stare at the sea wondering. What's the first thing YOU'D ask a whale? Drop it below! Let's turn AI smarts into ocean saves. The deep's calling—answer back.