DolphinGemma could let us talk with dolphins in 2025
Originally posted on LinkedIn, April 17, 2025.
Could we start talking with dolphins in 2025? It sounds like science fiction, but Google is working on it now.
Its new model, DolphinGemma, does more than listen to dolphin vocalizations. It understands them and can generate them so accurately that dolphins respond as if they were hearing one of their own.
The model was trained on decades of underwater recordings to identify patterns, sequences, and meanings in the sounds of one of nature's most communicative mammals. Google is combining it with a new technology called CHAT (Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry) inside Pixel devices, turning the exchange into two-way communication.
For the first time in history, we are not only studying another species. We are starting to talk with it. If researchers can connect synthetic whistles with objects dolphins like, such as toys or food, that could become the basis of a shared language.
And it may not end with dolphins. The same idea could lead to communication with whales, elephants, or parrots.
This technology does more than break a language barrier. It breaks the barrier between species and raises a philosophical question: if we can communicate with another form of consciousness, will we still consider it less than our own?