Decoding the Dolphin Language Dolphins rank among the smartest creatures on Earth and have been admired for millennia due to their intelligence, emotional depth, and social interactions with humans. Now, Google is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to unravel how dolphins communicate with each other, aiming to eventually enable humans to interactively converse with these friendly, finned mammals. In collaboration with researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP)—a Florida-based nonprofit that has been recording and studying dolphin sounds for 40 years—Google has developed a new AI model called DolphinGemma. A ‘Super Pod’ of over 1, 500 dolphins off the California coast was recently captured on drone footage. For decades, WDP has linked specific sounds with behavioral contexts. For example, signature whistles help mothers and calves reunite, while burst pulse "squawks" frequently occur during dolphin fights, according to researchers and a Google blog about the project. "Click buzzes" are commonly heard during courtship or when dolphins chase sharks. Using WDP’s extensive data, Google created DolphinGemma by building on its own lightweight AI open model, Gemma. DolphinGemma has been trained to analyze an enormous collection of recordings to identify patterns, structures, and even possible "meanings" behind dolphin vocalizations. Over time, the model aims to categorize dolphin sounds similarly to how words, sentences, or expressions function in human language. A Chinese Humanoid Robot Equipped with Eagle-Eye Vision and Advanced AI "By detecting recurring sound patterns, clusters, and reliable sequences, the model assists researchers in uncovering hidden structures and potential meanings in dolphins’ natural communications—a process that once demanded huge human effort, " a Google project post explains. "Eventually, these patterns, combined with synthetic sounds crafted by researchers to label objects dolphins favor during play, may form a shared vocabulary enabling interactive communication with dolphins. " DolphinGemma utilizes Google’s Pixel phone technology, specifically the audio recording capabilities of Pixel devices, to capture clean, high-quality recordings of dolphin vocalizations. This technology isolates dolphin clicks and whistles from background noises such as waves, boat engines, and underwater static.

Producing clear audio is critical for AI models like DolphinGemma because noisy or cluttered data would confuse the AI, researchers noted. Get Fox Business on the Go by Clicking Here Google intends to release DolphinGemma as an open model this summer, allowing scientists worldwide to use and customize it. Though initially trained on Atlantic spotted dolphins, researchers say the model can be fine-tuned to study other species like bottlenose or spinner dolphins. "By providing tools such as DolphinGemma, we aim to empower researchers globally to explore their own acoustic datasets, speed up pattern discovery, and collectively enhance our understanding of these intelligent marine mammals, " the blog concludes.