It’s been a 40-year wait, but AI is finally allowing Herzing to untangle what dolphins are saying, she told the audience at WIRED World Fair. Her research group has gathered countless hours of video and audio footage of dolphins, and it’s now working with scientists at Georgia Tech as well as Google DeepMind to give structure to dolphins’ language—if not fully translate it yet.

I felt a little deja vu reading this, and it turned out the feeling was right! The last time I read about Denise Herzing and her dolphin whispering was likely this Wired article, from back in 2014.

Back then, she was working with an interface that recognized specific dolphin whistles and relayed their assigned meanings to her through an earpiece. Now, with AI, her goal looks more promising than ever — although we have a long way to go.

“We might have the data and the structure, but what does it mean in dolphin culture?” she said. “That’s going to be an exploration on its own.”

Just the fact that we’re at a point where we’re discussing “dolphin culture” is a reality check for me.

I’ve always said, based on not much evidence and more of a gut feeling, this world belongs to the whales and dolphins. We know they have very sophisticated communication systems, and they rule 70% of the planet. We’re just the dumb apes living on the little bit of dry land here.

I, for one, would welcome our aquatic cousins into our society with open arms. If they even want that.