They are known as the third smartest animal on our planet (behind only humans and chimpanzees) and very soon, we might have access to the aquatic intelligence of dolphins.

That’s because Google have built an AI model that is trained to communicate with dolphins.

By growing its knowledge of, then decoding, dolphins’ clicks and whistles, the AI tool – known as DolphinGemma – is hoping to break down the language-based frontier between humans and dolphins.

As explained on a Google blog, the interdisciplinary team hope that the project will allow inter-species communication once and for all.

Working alongside the Wild Dolphin Project – which has been studying dolphin behavior and communication for decades, with the strict parameters of wild dolphins exhibiting wild behaviors only – Google and researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are adopting Google’s AI technology to try to not only understand dolphin communication, but respond in kind too.

This collaboration is central to the progress and innovation of the project. DolphinGemma has ‘learned’ from the huge Wild Dolphin Project dataset, whilst it relies on Google’s audio technologies to recreate the sounds in a realistic manner.

What’s more is that the audio technology is convenient, optimized for Google Pixel phones. And for other aquatic researchers, Google intends to open access to the DolphinGemma software, so that scientists and marine biologists around the world can fine tune it with their own data, too.

Just like any other translation software, the AI model (which is built on Google’s Gemma and Gemini technologies) takes in the audio, processes the patterns and information, and is capable of predicting what might come next – like our own predictive text might.

But decoding and predicting a dolphin’s vocalization patterns is just the beginning.

In collaboration with Google and Georgia Tech, the Wild Dolphin Project are now working on a new tool dubbed CHAT (Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry).

Using Google Pixel phones, the tool works underwater to communicate with dolphins. However, in this case, it is intended to create a shared language with the creatures – one that both humans and dolphins can understand.

By creating a dolphin-like sound to ‘name’ and object that dolphins desire, the researchers hope that just like we can teach a child the name of an object, the same will be true with dolphins.

And as this shared learning experience develops, it is hoped that ultimately, through a series of mutually-recognised clicks and whistles, dolphins and humans will for the first time be able to communicate in one shared language.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.