Scientists Adopt AI Capabilities to Understand Elephants 

A new study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution revealed that elephant communication may have unique names with each other. 

The study’s result was revealed by a group of scientists who used machine learning (ML) to analyze hundreds of wild African elephants’ calls recorded from 1996 to 2022. It focuses on different types of “contact calling” rumbles used by elephants to communicate from distance, “greeting” for close encounters, and “caregiving” when a female wants to comfort a calf. 

Secrets of Elephants Communication 

The study found that unlike dolphins and parrots who typically mimic the voice of the receiver, elephants have unique, name-like calls that are specific to individuals. These calls are abstract in nature, similar to human names, which indicates that have greater capacity for abstract thought than previously known. 

Micheal Pardo, a lead author in the study, told Business Insider that, during the study process, the use of machine learning was crucial for the interpretation of the acoustic structure of the calls. He added that humans would not be able to detect these patterns on their own. 

According to the study, when researchers played back a call that was initially addressed to a specific elephant, the same one reacted differently compared to how it responded to calls meant for other elephants. 

The study added also a YouTube video showing a mother elephant recognizing and responding to her daughter’s call. 

youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_BZVjJ8xgtg&ab_channel=NPGPress 

Pardo noted that elephants were also able to respond to names that are given to them by humans just like cats and dogs, stating that, “this is one of very few examples of animals addressing each other by name or with something similar to a name.” 

Researchers couldn’t figure out which part of the call is the name of the elephant because each call included details about the caller, such as the age, the emotional state, and the situation they were in. 

Final Thoughts 

There are plenty of risks associated with the use of AI in different fields, as well as the harm it is causing to people on different levels, such as deepfake sexual images and many others.  

Yet, one does not deny that this technology plays a relatively remarkably, and vital, role in the discovery of amazing things that couldn’t be done in the past due to the lack of equipment. 

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