SPECIAL | Might we soon understand sperm whale speak?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2024
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
These gentle giants of the ocean have long been a source of fascination for us humans. And while researchers have made huge gains in fostering a greater understanding of these majestic creatures in recent decades, the use of AI may have just cracked open the mother lode of all puzzles: thier language. Could this lead to one day the possibility of talking with whales? David Gruber, the founder & president of Project CETI, an interdisciplinary scientific and conservation project aimed at listening to and translating the communication of sperm whales, joins The Excerpt to share this exciting new development.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wunderry Plus subscribers can listen to USA Today's the excerpt ad free right now. |
| 0:05.0 | Join Wunderry Plus in the sound of sperm whales. |
| 0:17.0 | Hello and welcome to the excerpt. |
| 0:22.0 | I'm... Hello and |
| 0:25.0 | today is Thursday June 6th |
| 0:28.0 | 24 and this is a special episode of the excerpt. |
| 0:32.0 | The general giants of the ocean have long been a source of |
| 0:35.2 | fascination for as humans and while researchers have made huge gains in fostering |
| 0:40.0 | greater understanding of these majestic creatures in recent decades. |
| 0:43.8 | The use of AI may have just cracked open the mother load of all puzzles, |
| 0:49.0 | their language. |
| 0:50.2 | Might this lead to one day the possibility of talking with Wales? |
| 0:55.0 | To learn more, I'm joined now by one of the scientists behind this latest development. |
| 1:00.0 | David Grover is the founder and president of Project Setting, which stands for a cetacean |
| 1:06.1 | translation initiative, an interdisciplinary scientific and conservation project aimed at listening |
| 1:11.7 | to and translating the communication of sperm whales. |
| 1:16.2 | David, thank you so much for joining me. |
| 1:18.4 | My pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. |
| 1:20.9 | Let's start with a $64,000 question. |
| 1:24.8 | What are the chances that one day we could communicate directly with sperm whales? |
| 1:30.3 | Oh, that is an interesting question. I guess the idea is that communicating |
| 1:35.9 | we're more interested in understanding the communication and of course that opens up |
... |
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