AI finds consonants in sperm whale language

A team of scientists studying sperm whales has discovered that they can talk to each other. using complex language structures It is no different from human language communication.

Under the dark waters of the deep sea where no sunlight can reach. Or what is known as “midnight zone” (midnight zone), a giant of the sea, a female sperm whale Hunting for prey in the dark The aim is to find the legendary giant squid that has left many scars on its body. From the echolocation method (echolocation) When it finds a target, it makes a loud, rapid “click” sound. before rushing in to attack and kill the victim instantly.

However, no one knows for sure how sperm whales capture such ferocious and gigantic prey as giant squid. This mystery is one of the mysteries of sperm whale life. There are still many questions that scientists still don’t know the answers to.

“They are very slow swimmers,” said marine scientist Kristen Young, a marine scientist at the UK’s University of Exeter, skeptically. Because the prey giant squid can swim incredibly fast. “How do they catch giant squid as food? If you can swim as fast as 3 knots, or about 5.5 kilometers per hour only. The answer to this may be that Giant squid don’t move as fast as thought. Or sperm whales might use sound waves to strike first. Until causing the victim to become motionless and easy to kill But in fact No one knows what happens in the deep sea.”

Sperm whales are not easy creatures for scientists to study, because they spend most of their lives searching for food and prey in the deep sea. In the dark part without light like at night Sperm whales can dive to a depth of 3 kilometers and hold their breath for up to 2 hours straight.

“At a depth of 1,000 meters, most of the sperm whales in the pod are facing in the same direction. and always moving in lines flanking each other But they won’t be close together. and spread out over an area of ​​several square kilometers. During that time, they will talk and communicate with each other. By making a constant clicking noise,” explains Kristen. “About an hour had passed. The group rises to the surface together and enters a resting period. They stay at the surface for 15-20 minutes before starting to dive again.”

At the end of the daily hunt for food Entire pods of sperm whales gather at the surface and rub against each other. while making sounds and talking like humans while socializing Kristen addressed this behavior saying, “Even though we are researchers But I haven’t seen much of their behavior in their lives. Because sperm whales rarely come to the surface. This makes the things we don’t know about it enormous. This is because we were only able to observe it for a short period of time, about 15 minutes, when it rose to the surface.”

47 million years ago, the ancestors of cetaceans and dolphins (cetaceans) once lived on land. Starting to return to life in the ocean again. This creates a long evolutionary path. for adapting to life in an environment different from humans Therefore, it is not easy to understand another group of animals. As they live and communicate under evolutionary pressures that are completely different from our own,

“But it’s easy to understand. Through the interpretation of the overlapping parts of our world and the world of animals. such as eating, sleeping and raising offspring,” explains David Gruber, head and founder of the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI), a cetacean and dolphin language translation initiative.

Gruber, who is a professor of biology at the City University of New York, said: “We and other mammals share some basic behaviors. But I think it will be more interesting. If we try to understand some species of animals that have almost nothing similar to us.”

Cutting-edge technology is now helping scientists understand the meaning of animal language. Everything from elephants to dogs has become clearer. Artificial intelligence or AI (AI) can analyze large data sets. Until discovering diversity and complexity in the communication patterns of animals that humans had never known before. Recently, researchers in the Ziti project stated that They have also used AI to study whales and dolphins. Until being able to decode and discover the “phonetic alphabet” or consonant sounds in the sperm whale’s language.

In 2005, Shane Gero, chief biologist for the Ziti Project, The Dominica Sperm Whale Project was established to study the social and vocal behavior of approximately 400 sperm whales living in the eastern Caribbean Sea. They spent nearly 20 years observing sperm whales for thousands of hours. Until discovering the complexity of their vocalizations that no one had ever known before. This discovery reveals the structure of sperm whale communication. It looks very similar to human language.

Sperm whale society is divided into several levels. The main lineage is through the mother’s line. It consists of a group of daughters, mothers, and grandmothers who lead the pack. While the male whale wanders alone in the wide seas. and return only occasionally to mate for breeding.

They are well known animals. Have complex social behavior and can make decisions together as a group This behavior requires only a high level of communication. For example, the ability of sperm whales to adapt to new behaviors that are consistent throughout the herd. To protect yourself and your relatives When facing danger from predators like killer whales or humans.

Previously, scientists found that Sperm whales communicate with each other by making rapid, rhythmic clicks in a variety of ways. These signals are called “codas.” In the past, scientists believed there were only 21 codas in sperm whales, but after the Ziti project studied nearly 9,000 recorded sounds, they discovered discovered that there were 156 completely different codas, and the basic building blocks used to create these codas were discovered, namely the “phonetic alphabet” of the sperm whale language. These units of sound (phonemes) are like the consonants in human language that make up words.

Pratyusha Sharma, PhD research student From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT (MIT), which led the above research, explains: It has used AI to analyze the sounds of sperm whales, finding “extremely microscopic changes” in their vocalizations. Each coda consists of three to 40 rapid-fire clicks. The speed of the coda, or tempo, can vary from time to time. Sperm whales also produce coda sounds by speeding up or dragging more slowly than normal. Until it becomes a converted sound called rubato as well.

All of the above vocalization characteristics Just as music uses nuances to convey rich and varied meanings, sperm whales also sometimes like to add a tail or an extra click at the end of a coda. which is similar to decoration (ornamentation) in music, in which notes are added to the melody to create more emotion Sharma concludes that the diversity in the vocalizations of these sperm whales This indicates that their communication may involve the transmission of large amounts of information in a complex manner. The level is much higher than scientists had previously predicted.

“The nuances of these sounds convey meaning that depends on the context,” adds Sharma. “In human language When I say ‘What?’ and ‘Arayana’, both sentences come from the same word. But the meanings convey different emotions. You have to listen to the whole thing from beginning to end to understand.”

The team also found that sperm whales can use phonemes to form combinations. and create new and widespread sound patterns. Their communication uses a combination of encryption systems. This is necessary for the emergence of the linguistic phenomenon called duality of patterning, or the loss of meaning in sub-language elements. They come together and form words that have meaning. This is a phenomenon previously thought to exist only in human language.

Sharma, however, emphasized that The discovery of the AI ​​does not yet have scientific evidence to support or confirm whether it is a high-level language of sperm whales or not. “We just found a coda in sperm whale communication. It is formed by combining these basic phonemes and articulation patterns. The codas are then arranged together in order. This creates a series of coda sequences. This is similar to how humans combine phonemes to make words. Then arrange the words to make sentences.”

Gruber further confirmed that Discovery of a complex communication system in sperm whales It still does not indicate or help provide additional knowledge to scientists. In matters of intelligence ability to reason Including details about remembering and sharing information among whales in no way.

“At this stage, it cannot tell us anything. Before we move on to higher level questions. We must first establish a basic understanding of how they communicate and what they mean. We now see only that they lead complex lives. with subtlety and cooperation in expressing various behaviors. If one were a mountain climber, it could be called We were still at the base camp at the foot of the mountain. This is a new area of ​​exploration and study for humans. Give us another couple of years. It is believed that AI will allow us to take a deeper look at how sperm whales communicate. at a higher level than ever before,” Gruber concluded.

But even so There are some scientists and experts who disagree with the above research results of the ZETI project. He cautioned against using human language to judge whale communication behavior. There is a risk of misinterpretation and study and understanding from only one narrow perspective.

Kristen Young, a marine scientist from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom Express your opinion that This is another step towards understanding the life of giant deep-sea creatures. “We put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together. It’s starting to take shape.” She added that perhaps humans should continue to eavesdrop on them. To understand matters such as how the elder female grandmother whale plays an important role in the herd. What are the similarities between whales and humans? It may help us change our behavior to conserve whales in the future.

Sperm whales are currently classified as endangered species. By the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sperm whale populations around the world are just beginning to recover. From the heavy pursuit of whalers in the 19th and 20th centuries, even though the ban on whaling has been in effect for decades, But they still face new threats, such as global climate change, ocean noise pollution, and accidents from maritime ship strikes.

Kristen concluded: There is still a long way to go before scientists can fully understand how What exactly do sperm whales communicate among themselves? “Right now we really don’t know the answer, but the more we can understand about these amazing creatures, the better. The more humans will be able to protect them, the better.”