Tom Mustill, How To Speak Whale

(c) Sam Mansfield

January 28, 2023 16:00 GMT / 11:00 EDT/ 08:00 PST

How to Speak Whale: How tech is transforming our understanding of and relationship to the natural world

In 2015, wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill was whale-watching when a humpback breached onto his kayak and nearly killed him. After a video clip of the event went viral, scientists used AI to discover who the whale was, reconstruct its life story and demonstrate that it wasn't trying to harm him. Fascinated, Tom spent 4 years meeting the pioneers in a new age of discovery, whose cutting-edge developments in natural science and technology are taking us to the brink of decoding animal communication using remote sensors, big data and machine intelligence.

In this talk Tom will explain how whales, with their giant mammalian brains, sophisticated vocalisations and complex cultures offer one of the most realistic opportunities for us to do so. Tom will also discuss what it would mean if we were to make contact. As the fantasy of Dr Doolittle shows promise of turning into reality, how can we protect the living world from these new powers and make sure that if we make contact we do not harm or exploit them?

You can see the video now via our YouTube channel below.