About this episode

Gašper Beguš discusses breakthroughs in understanding sperm whale language and the role of AI in this research.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . We're going underwater, to talk with whales. There have been some amazing breakthroughs recently in understanding the language of sperm whales, and AI plays a fascinating part in that. And even if you have no immediate intentions to go say hi to a whale, AI's part in this story has ramifications far outside the field of cetacean communication. Taking us through that is Gašper Beguš, whose recent research has produced one of the most startling advances yet in the quest to understand whale communication. Gašper is Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, where he focuses on interpretable AI, combining linguistics, cognitive science, machine learning, neuroscience, philology, and marine biology. He is the Linguistics Lead at Project CETI, a nonprofit organization applying advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art robotics to understanding whales, working in Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. In his Berkeley Biological and Artificial Language lab, he also builds the most realistic models of human language learning. He's been featured everywhere from the BBC and the Guardian to Time, The Atlantic, and National…

People in this episode

Guest: Gašper Beguš

Topics covered

• whale communication
• AI in linguistics
• marine biology
• interspecies communication
• language understanding
• cognitive science

Keywords

• sperm whales
• AI
• linguistics
• marine biology
• communication
• cognitive science
• Project CETI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Project CETI, UC Berkeley, BBC, the Guardian, Time, The Atlantic, National Geographic

Places: Dominica, eastern Caribbean

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