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.

Rodents engage in social communication through a rich repertoire of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). Recording and analysis of USVs has broad utility during diverse behavioral tests and can be performed noninvasively in almost any rodent behavioral model to provide rich insights into the emotional state and motor function of the test animal. Despite strong evidence that USVs serve an array of communicative functions, technical and financial limitations have been barriers for most laboratories to adopt vocalization analysis. Recently, deep learning has revolutionized the field of machine hearing and vision, by allowing computers to perform human-like activities including seeing, listening, and speaking. Such systems are constructed from biomimetic, "deep", artificial neural networks.