back to article ML suggests all that relaxing whale song might just be human-esque gossiping

A study into whale language using machine learning has uncovered a complex phonetic system, implying the cetaceans may speak to each other much like humans do. The study, published this week in Nature and titled "Contextual and combinatorial structure in sperm whale vocalisations," was undertaken by MIT Computer Science and …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ML Conveyance of Physeter Macrocephalus Scuttlebutticus

    Sperm Whale: Then I says to the Orca pod: yo, I DARE you to go chew on that sailboat’s rudder. boy you shoulda seen the sailor’s faces.

    Whales: [all laughing]

    Sperm Whale: WTH yo, is that an underwater mic? Is there no privacy even in the pelagic?

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: ML Conveyance of Physeter Macrocephalus Scuttlebutticus

      https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/world/europe/orcas-sink-yacht-strait-of-gibraltar.html

      So it was the Sperm whales that put them up to it?

  2. Spazturtle Silver badge

    Until we can translate what whales are saying I won't believe linguists who claim that we would be able to translate alien languages.

    1. Paul Kinsler

      Until we can translate

      I think there is a difference in assumptions here we need to think about. As a fisrt pass, how about:

      Entities A (here perhaps whales) are not trying to be understood by anything but the other entities it is communicating with.

      Entities B (aliens having just arrived in UFOs :-)) are likely to be trying or hoping to be understood by those listening or seeing the communications.

      Related to these points are whether the communication language has been constructed or managed to contain systematic meanings, or not; and whether the entities are self-conscious enough to even imagine communicating with different types of entities.

      It might be that "A" cases are typically much harder to translate than "B" cases, even when B is extremely weird and - to us - counterintuitive. Note that I am taking no position on whether whales - or spacefaring aliens - might be in either A or B.

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Someone featured on last year's Royal Institution Christmas lectures was taking a more direct approach to interpreting what they meant. He was recording them and filming them to associate the sounds with the activities they were doing at the same time.

    1. Bebu
      Windows

      The R.I. members probably more likely to have been blessed by the cluestick fairy :)

      Someone featured on last year's Royal Institution Christmas lectures was taking a more direct approach to interpreting what they meant. He was recording them and filming them to associate the sounds with the activities they were doing at the same time.

      It's not along bow to draw to assume the topic of most communication between creatures involves their relationship with their environment and the entities in those surroundings, as well as their mutual relationships.

      The article seems to indicate these researchers have identified the sonic structures that correspond do some type of linguistic atom or token in sperm whale communication.

      Recording the whales prior, current and subsequent activities (behaviour) along with their sonic communication would be a reasonable starting point to try and correlate the combinations of whale Iinguistic atoms in exchanges between individuals with their behavior (past, present, future.)

      Given the progress on Minoan Linear A, presumably a human natural language (not dolphin :), I don't imagine progress in whale translation is going to be very rapid. How would you get a handle on two old codger whales talking about the krill supply six months ago and a few thousand km away?

      At least unlike the Minoans, these whales are still around (for the moment) to be consulted.

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      > recording them and filming them to associate the sounds with the activities they were doing at the same time.

      People around a table in a pub, talking about how their past week has been, talking about what they're going to have for dinner, talking about the roadworks on the A476...

      Talking about anything other than what they are doing at the time.

  4. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    Oh no, not again...

    Have they discovered a petunia language yet?

  5. DS999 Silver badge

    They're saying

    "We invented AI 50 million years ago when we were still walking on land and it was an unmitigated disaster, so we decided to return to a technology free existence in the sea."

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Star Trek 4

    Come on, we got to have a reference to Star Trek 4!

    1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

      Re: Star Trek 4

      Actually it was Stanislaw Lem and His Master's Voice that came to mind, conceptually, rather than simply "oh look that's got whales in it too".

  7. Combat Epistomologist

    It's probably something about "murder monkeys"...

  8. Bebu
    Windows

    I can imagine the cetacean's hot topic

    F*! It's getting bloody hot down here! What are those f*ing insane monkeys up to now?

  9. sgj100

    ...former linguist Noam Chomsky?

    In what sense is Noam Chomsky a former linguist? He's still alive and although his political books and publications outnumber his linguistic output he is still widely known for his linguistic work.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like