Berkeley wins Schmidt Sciences HAVI grant to decode whale and parrot communication with AI
begusgasper · x · 2026-10-21
UC Berkeley researchers Nina Beguš and Gašper Beguš received Schmidt Sciences HAVI funding to test whether properties of human language — sound change, dialect, and more — appear in the communication of sperm whales, orcas and parrots.
The team previously built AI models that learn language by imitating speech, like babies do, potentially making AI more efficient while revealing how humans and other species communicate. The work aims to reconceptualize language as an evolutionary information technology spanning human, animal, and machine communication.
Related event: Berkeley Team Wins Funding to Decode Whale Language with AI(2 posts)→
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