We’ll begin with Gašper Beguš who will share new research on sperm whale communication at Project CETI—and how AI helped guide the discovery. Sperm whales communicate using short sequences of clicks called “codas,” which have traditionally been studied by their rhythm and timing. This research shows there’s more going on: whales also produce distinct sound patterns that repeat reliably and resemble how humans use different vowel sounds.
To uncover these patterns, the research team used o1 as an exploration and discovery tool. Instead of telling the system what to look for, they used o1 to scan large amounts of raw sound data and highlight features that seemed important—even though they hadn’t been part of previous analyses. o1 helped point researchers toward subtle sound differences that appeared consistently across whales and interactions, suggesting these patterns might be meaningful rather than random noise.
Once these clues were identified, the team followed up with careful human analysis and established scientific methods to confirm the findings. The result is evidence of a richer, more structured whale communication system—and a clear example of how AI can help researchers find new questions to ask, not just answer old ones.
The finding of vowels and diphthongs in sperm whales further deepens our understanding of non-human intelligence and the next step is to decode the meaning these vowels may convey within the context of sperm whales’ complex communication.
