New AI can detect the screams of animals swimming in an ocean of noise

The ocean swims in sounds, and a new AI tool could help scientists sift through all that noise to track and study marine mammals. This tool is called Deep Squeak, not because it measures the calls of dolphins. The researchers are now applying the technology to vast marine bioacoustics datasets. Given that much of the ocean is out of our physical reach, underwater sound can help us understand where marine mammals swim, their density and abundance, and how they interact with each other. Recordings of whale songs have already helped to identify an unknown population of blue whales in the Indian Ocean and a previously unknown species of beaked whales.