A prize prize of $ 100,000 was to communicate with animals by researchers who shed light on the meaning of the dolphin whistle.
the Color Dolitel Award The communication between the two -way species was It was launched last year By the Jeremy Koler Foundation and Tel Aviv University.
The winning team, the Sarasota Dolphin research program led by Lilla Sid and Peter Tac of the Woods Hall Institute of Ocean Sciences, is studying the bottle -covered dolphins in the water near Sarasota, Florida, for more than four decades.
Researchers used non -invasive techniques such as hydrovones and digital vocal signs attached by suction cups to record animal sounds. These include “sirens” similar to the name, as well as “non-signing” sirens-voices that make up about 50 % of animal calls but are not well understood.
In their latest work, That the peer has not yet been reviewed, the team has determined at least 20 different types of whistle other than signature that is produced by multiple dolphins, where each of the two types were shared at least 25 people.
When the researchers played these voices again to the dolphin, they found one of them to avoid animals, indicating that it might be an alarm, while the other sparked a set of responses, indicating that it may be a sound made by dolphins when they face something unexpected.
Say said that winning was a surprise, adding: “I didn’t really expect it, so I was very happy. It is the honor of such honor.”
The jury led Yossi Yville, a professor of zoology at the University Cancel the connection of the meaning of the source By the bats as they argue.
“We were mostly affected by a large -term database created, and we are sure that it will lead to many new and interesting results,” said Juvena.
Juvena added that the referees hope that the award will help in applying artificial intelligence data to reveal more impressive results.
Jonathan Persh, a professor of philosophy at London College of Economics and one of the judges, said the main thing that prevents humans from breaking the animal communication blog is a lack of data.
He said: “Think about the trillion words needed to train a large language model like Chatgpt. We have nothing like this for other animals.”
“For this reason we need programs such as the SARASOTA DOLPHIN research program, which has built an extraordinary library of the dolphin whistle for 40 years. The cumulative result of all this work is that Laela Sayigh can now use deep learning to analyze the savings, and perhaps, in one day, the code.”
Juvena said that about 20 teams entered this year’s competition, which led to four contestants. Besides the Sayigh and Tyack team, these teams that work to understand the communication included in Knightingusand SquidAnd Marmosetts.
He added 2025/2026 Award now open to applications. However, in addition to an annual prize of $ 100,000, there is also a great prize to seize either $ 10 million investments or $ 500,000 in cash.
To win this, researchers must develop an algorithm to allow the animal “to communicate independently without realizing that he is communicating with humans” – something proposed by Jeremy Koler that may be achieved during the next five years.
The challenge is inspired by Torring test For artificial intelligence, humans should be unable to know if they speak with a computer or real person until the system succeeds.
Robert Sivarth, professor of honorary psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who did not participate in the award, welcomed the victory.
He said: “These are distinguished scholars, who are doing the latest revolution in our understanding of communication with the dolphins and our awareness. This is a deserved recognition.”
Clara Mancini, a professor of interaction of animal computers at the Open University, added that Dolphin’s work explains the potential of technology in enhancing our understanding of animal communications, and perhaps one day we were able to communicate with them on their own conditions.
“I think one of the main benefits of these developments is that it can finally prove that animal communications systems can be advanced and effective for use in the environments in which its users have evolved, because the human language is for our race,” she said.
“However, on the journey towards communication between species, I would like to suggest, we need to remain on the grounds that deciphering the language is not the same as the experience of language users experience and that, as well as curiosity, the challenge requires humility and respect for the unique knowledge and the global view that each type possesses.”
