The Language of Whales

The film follows a team of researchers headed by Professor Elmar Noeth and Rachael Cheng from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. They spent three years collecting data on the movements and vocalization of various orca pods in the Pacific. Their aim was to investigate a possible connection between the patterns of the killer whales‘ calls and their behaviour and human languages. Using special microphones, they captured the underwater sounds and behaviors of these marine mammals. Then they tried to determine the whales‘ position and classify their calls. It’s a first step towards solving the mysteries of whale song. And so it also helps us understand how similar or dissimilar they are from ourselves

Using artificial intelligence to decipher unfamiliar communications systems is not without its difficulties. However, it’s already clear that AI will transform our ideas about highly communicative species in the coming years.

2019 / 42 minutes / Volker Barth

You can watch the film by clicking this link.