Scientists Have Reported a Breakthrough In Understanding Whale Language (vice.com) 48
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Researchers have identified previously unknown elements of whale vocalizations that may be analogous to human speech, a new study reports. Sperm whales are giants of the deep, with healthy adults having no known predators. Scientists studying their vocalizations have already picked out key elements of their communication, namely clicks, sequences of which are called codas. Now, researchers led by Gasper Beus from the University of California, Berkeley report the discovery that the acoustic properties of these clicks -- for example, pitch -- are "on many levels analogous to human vowels and dipthongs," which is when one vowel sound morphs into another such as in the word "coin." The researchers even identify two unique "coda vowels" that are "actively exchanged" in conversation between whales, which they term the a-vowel and i-vowel.
The researchers explain in their paper, published as a preprint online this week, that the first clue that so-called spectral properties could be meaningful for whale speech was provided by AI. Beus previously developed a deep learning model for human language called fiwGAN which "was trained to imitate sperm whale codas and embed information into these vocalizations." Not only did the AI predict elements of whale vocalizations already thought to be meaningful, such as clicks, but it also singled out acoustic properties. To follow up on the AI's tip, the researchers analyzed a dataset of 3948 sperm whale codas recorded with hydrophones placed directly on whales between 2014 and 2018. They only analyzed one channel from the hydrophones to control for underwater effects and whale movement, and removed click timing from their visualization to better isolate patterns in the acoustic properties themselves.
These visualizations vindicated the AI's prediction: The whales reliably exchanged codas with one or two formants -- frequency peaks in the sound wave -- below the 10kHz range. The researchers termed these codas "vowels," with single-formant codas being a-vowels and two-formant codas being i-vowels. "This is by analogy to human vowels which differ in their formant frequencies," the authors wrote. They also identified upward and downward frequency "trajectories" in these codas, which they considered analogous to dipthongs in human language. Considering that these coda vowel patterns were very distinct and not intermixed, plus the existence of dipthongs, the researchers argue that whales are controlling the frequency of their vocalizations.
The researchers explain in their paper, published as a preprint online this week, that the first clue that so-called spectral properties could be meaningful for whale speech was provided by AI. Beus previously developed a deep learning model for human language called fiwGAN which "was trained to imitate sperm whale codas and embed information into these vocalizations." Not only did the AI predict elements of whale vocalizations already thought to be meaningful, such as clicks, but it also singled out acoustic properties. To follow up on the AI's tip, the researchers analyzed a dataset of 3948 sperm whale codas recorded with hydrophones placed directly on whales between 2014 and 2018. They only analyzed one channel from the hydrophones to control for underwater effects and whale movement, and removed click timing from their visualization to better isolate patterns in the acoustic properties themselves.
These visualizations vindicated the AI's prediction: The whales reliably exchanged codas with one or two formants -- frequency peaks in the sound wave -- below the 10kHz range. The researchers termed these codas "vowels," with single-formant codas being a-vowels and two-formant codas being i-vowels. "This is by analogy to human vowels which differ in their formant frequencies," the authors wrote. They also identified upward and downward frequency "trajectories" in these codas, which they considered analogous to dipthongs in human language. Considering that these coda vowel patterns were very distinct and not intermixed, plus the existence of dipthongs, the researchers argue that whales are controlling the frequency of their vocalizations.
Nice to see (Score:3)
These researchers could probably triple their salaries by turning their talents to the war machine.
How wonderful that they are not! Great job everybody.
Here's some (Score:3)
Re: Nice to see (Score:2)
The great coming AI war of 2024. (Yes, I am optimistic enough to think we'll last until 2024.)
Re:Nice to see (Score:5, Funny)
And for those of you just swimming into this thread who don't speak English, let me translate that for you:
" áìiì'-áìaìáiiáìáì 'ai'aáìá'aaaáììa-áiáìai 'ìáaiáa'aii'-aiì'áiaaììaá'ìái'' ááá''aá-'áì'ì-ìì'iaáa ìáìáá-iiì'i'iáìááá'áì'iì'ì'ì á iáì-á'á'ìi a-aììá'ì'i'áa ááaìaaá ii'a'ááa'ìi.
ììiìia-á'áa á'ìì'áiá-iiì-aiìiìáaia áaa'ì'ììaa! aiááiiì'ì'a aiìi'ì-ìaiai-ì'ì'i' aáiáiìiìiì a'iiìá'iaìái'-ì'ì'i ìi-á-aaá "
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Sorry, I'm just a beginner! Iá-aiái'aai' iaiì'ái-aaììiá'ìái'' áíáaá áì'ì'ìa!
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Sounds like Cachalot has got a þorn in his side over it. (That started as "compose-t-h", before Slashcode ... did things - horrible things - to it.)
Brace yourselves... (Score:3)
...the Star Trek IV jokes are coming...
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Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!
Re: Brace yourselves... (Score:3)
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It's Mormon?
Re: Brace yourselves... (Score:2)
Technically no. It did LDS. It just ate some Mormons. :-)
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...the Star Trek IV jokes are coming...
Beam us up Scotty ...
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Nah, the Finding Nemo jokes are better.
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I mean, like... if their language is complex enough to convey such a thing, they probably are? Because it's already known that different groups of sperm whales have different "dialects" [smithsonianmag.com]. So they can audibly tell when a whale is not part of their "culture".
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Having other species sharing their environment, which are comparably -intelligent, -sized, and -communicative is likely to ha
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But what if this leads us to learn that whales are making racist rants?
'i swear those sharks are all lawyers'
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Big Whale.
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Damnit! Another wet keyboard.
You win the internet today.
At 180 decibels, I suppose Big Wail might be equally appropriate.
Side bar but (Score:3)
Anyways, whales are cool. That's all.
Re:Side bar but (Score:5, Informative)
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Sigh. Just subtract 26 Db from the water referenced sound level [noaa.gov] for Pete's sake.
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Ugh. I'm well aware of that. Can we just marvel about how cool science is for a second and how amazing whales are than split hairs about how sound travels through different mediums?
Sigh. Just subtract 26 Db from the water referenced sound level [noaa.gov] for Pete's sake.
The researchers said that there is a spot behind the whale where recording levels are perfect, but that sounds like a bit of a fluke.
Re: Side bar but (Score:2)
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Can we just marvel about how cool science is for a second and how amazing whales are than split hairs about how sound travels through different mediums?
No, we literally cannot. We have to be technically correct because it is the best kind of correct.
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Morally certain is easier and even more satisfying than technically correct.
They've even published a provisional dictionary (Score:4, Funny)
click click BWA click - "anyone want to make a krill run?"
Click rumble BWAAH click - "I'm down for some krill"
BWAAH BWAAH BWAAH! - "I'm sick of krill! Let's go for cuttlefish instead"
rumble rumble rumble rumble - "Man, that giant squid isn't sitting so well. I feel like I might puke."
BWA click BWA click - "Who are those tiny idiots wearing rubber suits?"
BWA BWAH click click - "Hey if you're gonna puke, do it on those tiny rubber suit wearers!"
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"She ought to dump that pink chimp and go out with a real mammal" [youtube.com]
publishing a preprint is an oxymoron (Score:3)
The publishing cycle requires a pre-reviewed article draft to be sent to some anonymous reviewers, who accept/reject/require corrections. The final article draft is then sent to the publisher (if accepted) who may reformat and schedule the actual publication. It then appears in a journal or magazine months later.
The idea of a "preprint" was that authors would get advance paper printed copies of their article sent to them after the publisher was done typesetting, as a courtesy and as a final chance to catch errors and corrections. This would happen months before the actual journal showed up in the library, so the preprints were valuable for sharing with colleagues (for free) and as advanced proof that the research was worthy of publication and passed all the tests.
Modern "preprints" are not peer reviewed so should not get the cachet of publication. The system has been warped and gives a false impression to laypeople about the state of scientific knowledge in general.
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People also publish things electronically, not only in print. "Publish" in this context means "make public", not "complete a peer review process".
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2) Published research has a strong implication of "peer reviewed", not "make public". When it's not peer reviewed, it's not really science, just wishful thinking. And yes, peer review doesn't guarantee quality all the time, but often does.
3) For an analogy, think o
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I don't know about that particular preprint server (I don't follow much in the biological realm ; I don't recognize the name), but at least on the granddaddy of preprint servers, ArXiv, to get a paper published there, you need to get it sponsored by someone who has already had several papers published on ArXiv. There is a non-trivial amount of gate-keeping there, and that's a good thing. If there weren
Re: publishing a preprint is an oxymoron (Score:3)
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I don't recall Monroe piping up very loudly back in about 1997 (about when Slashdot started), when the management of Compuserve (one of the biggest email+forums services of the time ; since brought by AOL) started recommending users to post information into their forum "libraries". It was quite a stink, because it was accompanied by a recommendation to buy about £300 worth of software.
It did have an effect - hundreds of thousands of people rapidly started using "pseudo-pr
I have said this before... (Score:3)
"Get the fuck off of my planet, you damn dirty apes."
last translation (Score:2)
Dammit. Have to switch now. Pig latin, everyone!
Jokester whale: What do you mean, "everyone"?
Serious whale: E V E R Y O N E !!!
42 (Score:2)
Not only that, but OpenAI has trained chatbots on whale speech and now we know that whales have been asking for more fish prior to their leaving this planet before the Vogons arrive.
The chatbots promise lots of delicious herring if only the whales tell us exactly when they expect the Vogon ships. A Mr. D Adams claims he knows but he wants more than herring to tell all.
It won't be long... (Score:3)
Before someone in this research notices the whales are saying "So long, and thanks for all the fish." :-/
20 years behind (Score:2)
Dory already figured out whale communications 20 years ago. These scientists should have just asked the folks at Pixar.
First off, (Score:2)
Props to these scientists for trying to decipher what the Welsh people are saying.