In 2021, SETI conducted an intriguing experiment in which scientists listened to the speech of a humpback whale named Twain, but the approach had two limitations. First, communication was mainly limited to the whale talking to the researchers, who could barely say anything back to the whale. Now, some researchers believe that AI could fill this gap, providing the equivalent of a Star Trek universal translator, but this is all based on the big assumption that the whale had something worth saying.
Marine biologist Dr. David Shiffman points out that “most organisms don’t need to communicate anything more complex to others of their species than simply ‘Watch out for predators!’ or ‘Want to mate?'” Shiffman’s logic is that if animals like whales say very little to each other, they have even less to say to humans. And what they are communicating to us, he argues, is that we’re getting too close to their descendants and we need to get back as soon as possible.