Google Released AI Model, DolphinGemma, Decoding Dolphin Vocalizations Bridging Human-Dolphin Communication
Real-time dolphin chatter analysis hits the ocean, straight from a Pixel phone
In what might be the most unexpectedly cool crossover of tech and marine biology in 2025, Google just launched DolphinGemma, an AI model designed to decode dolphin vocalizations. Yes, you read that right—Google is now officially in the dolphin-whispering business.
The model, built in collaboration with Georgia Tech and The Wild Dolphin Project, isn’t some massive datacenter monster. It’s a sleek, 400-million-parameter AI that runs on a regular old Google Pixel phone, right there on the boat. No satellite uplinks. No bulky gear. Just researchers holding up a phone to dolphins and getting insights on the spot.
This is all about signature whistles—those one-of-a-kind sound patterns dolphins use like names. Each bottlenose dolphin crafts its own whistle early in life, and they stick with it, using them to call out across the sea to friends, family, or maybe just to say “sup” to a nearby pod. These whistles aren’t just for roll call. They carry a ton of individual data and serve as the glue that holds together dolphin social life, especially for tightly bonded male alliances.
DolphinGemma taps into these patterns using Google’s SoundStream tokenizer, turning watery clicks and chirps into analyzable data streams. It spots recurring loops, clusters, and even predicts what a dolphin is likely to say next—kind of like autocomplete, but for cetaceans.
Even cooler? The AI syncs with the CHAT system—that’s short for Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry. Picture an underwater computer with a real-time acoustic keyboard and a sound recognition engine running at dolphin-speed (up to 96kHz). CHAT lets researchers send pre-programmed sounds back to dolphins, potentially creating the building blocks of a two-way conversation.
Imagine a future where you toss a ball to a dolphin, it whistles a specific sound, and your phone chirps back, “Ball?” Then you toss it again, and now you’ve got a game of catch with translation subtitles. That’s the level of interaction CHAT + DolphinGemma is aiming for.
It’s not quite Finding Nemo meets Google Translate yet, but we’re inching closer. And the best part? It’s happening in the wild, in real time, and powered by a phone that also plays YouTube and checks email.