Google and the Wild Dolphin Project are making strides in understanding dolphin communication with their innovative AI system, DolphinGemma. This system aims to translate and replicate the complex language of dolphins, marking a significant advancement in decades of research. The project continues to evolve in 2025, promising deeper insights into the underwater world.
DolphinGemma, built using the architecture of Google's Gemini systems, contains approximately 400 million parameters. Functioning as a predictive text AI, it processes audio inputs to predict dolphin sounds. This technology is being actively deployed in the field during the 2025 season to identify recurring sound patterns and potential meanings within dolphin communication.
The CHAT (Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry) system complements DolphinGemma by facilitating a simplified, shared vocabulary between humans and dolphins. By teaching Atlantic spotted dolphins synthetic whistles associated with favorite objects, experts hope to enable dolphins to eventually request items, bringing humans closer to interspecies communication. Field tests are ongoing in summer 2025 using Google Pixel 9 phones to enhance real-time analysis and interaction.