AI Helps Decode Dolphin Sounds in Decades-Long Study
Wildlife watchers should know researchers have found patterns in dolphin communication but have not yet achieved a two-way conversation.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Wildlife
Live Poll
Should governments fund AI research aimed at understanding animal communication?
Denise Herzing's Wild Dolphin Project is using AI to analyze years of dolphin audio and video footage in an effort to decode patterns in how dolphins communicate. The team has also tested two-way communication by playing dolphin-like sounds through an underwater wearable computer, though a true two-way conversation has not yet been achieved.
Why it matters
Pairing machine-learning pattern detection with field recordings offers a faster way to sort through the large volume of animal sound and video that researchers collect. For the public, the work is a window into how wildlife research is changing as AI tools become more accessible.
The project has collected countless hours of video and audio of dolphins over roughly four decades. Researchers working with scientists at Georgia Tech and Google DeepMind have used sounds to indicate items including a scarf and sargassum seaweed.
The players
Denise Herzing
Founder and director of the Wild Dolphin Project, a long-running study of Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamas.
Georgia Tech
A research university whose scientists are collaborating with the Wild Dolphin Project on the analysis.
Google DeepMind
An AI research lab whose scientists are working with the Wild Dolphin Project on dolphin communication analysis.
The details
Researchers use AI to find patterns in dolphin audio and video footage, looking for recurring structures in the sounds dolphins make. In the field, one researcher plays a dolphin sound through an underwater wearable computer while a second researcher interacts with an item, such as a scarf or a piece of sargassum seaweed. The team then watches whether the dolphins respond in ways that suggest they associate the sound with the object.
Timeline
1985: Herzing first began studying dolphin communication on a trip to the Bahamas.
The Wild Frontier
The effort extends the Wild Dolphin Project's field work begun in the Bahamas in 1985, which has accumulated decades of recorded dolphin behavior. Adding AI pattern analysis to that archive is a new step in a study that until now relied largely on human observation of the footage.
If you keep a pet or follow wildlife news, this is a reminder that animal communication research is advancing with new tools, but no product or household action is required. Readers interested in marine life can follow the Wild Dolphin Project's published findings as they become available.
The takeaway
AI is giving wildlife researchers a faster way to find patterns in decades of animal recordings, though meaning still has to be confirmed in the field. Anyone curious about animal behavior can start by learning how researchers separate observed patterns from proven communication.
Further reading
For more on how researchers study animals in the wild, explore our Wildlife coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Wired.
Live Poll
Should governments fund AI research aimed at understanding animal communication?
