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Sperm whale ‘alphabet’ discovered, thanks to machine learning

Researchers at MIT CSAIL and Project CETI believe that they have unlocked a kind of sperm whale "alphabet" with the aid of machine learning technologies.

The teams deployed machine learning solutions to analyze a dataset of 8,719 sperm whale codas collected by researcher Shane Gero off the coast of the small eastern Caribbean island, Dominica. Our results demonstrate that sperm whale vocalizations form a complex combinatorial communication system: the seemingly arbitrary inventory of coda types can be explained by combinations of rhythm, tempo, rubato, and ornamentation features. Sizable combinatorial vocalization systems are exceedingly rare in nature; however, their use by sperm whales shows that they are not uniquely human, and can arise from dramatically different physiological, ecological, and social pressures.

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