Scientist share world's first 'conversation' between humans and whales - and say it's the first step to understanding aliens

Scientists claim they have had the first one-on-one conversation with a whale.

The team from the SETI Institute and the University of California 'spoke' with a 38-year-old humpback whale, named Twain, off the coast of Alaska.

They used an underwater microphone to send out whale calls, 'whup/throp' sounds, and received 36 responses that seemed like Twain was actively engaged in a communicative exchange.

AI-powered algorithms analyzed the replies, revealing Twain may have shared a greeting call with the team on a boat in the Pacific Ocean.

While speaking to a different species has never been done in this manner, researchers are using the experience to hopefully one day converse with extraterrestrial life.

Twain, a 38-year-old female humpback whale (pictured) communicated with researchers 36 times over a 20-minute period. The researchers said it's possible the communication was a back-and-forth 'Hello.'

Researchers hope the interaction with Twain could lead to communications with aliens because the whale's language is so complex that it forces researchers to identify what their vocalizations mean

In the absence of any aliens, the researchers hope to use whales to develop strategies for non-human communication.

Humpback whales make such a good alien proxy because of their extremely high intelligence and powers of communication.

'Humpbacks are very socially complex,' lead research author Brenda McCowan told UC Davis. 

'They travel vast distances. They have a huge vocal repertoire. I always say that every sound ever made in the natural world the humpback makes. It's incredible the diversity of sounds that they produce.'

The team found Twain with a pod in the Pacific Ocean, and decided it was the best place to deploy the underwater microphones.

Twain had left the pod and joined the team by there boat, allowing researchers to capture the first one-on-one conversation with a whale - along with chatter of the pod while they hunted their next meal.

Twain was part of a pod (pictured) that the researchers initially recorded to use their own sounds to illicit a response. The following day, Twain separated from the pod when the researchers played back their sounds on an underwater speaker

Whale pods swim in circles to capture their prey, and researchers are trying to understand how they communicate during this process

Although some sounds the whales made could be socializing noises, the researchers believe they could be making commands such as telling each other to go up or down.

For example, the team suggested the whales may be telling each other to 'blow the net deeper' or even said 'you idiot' for an emotional response.

The team told UC Davis that when they first dropped the underwater microphones they heard nothing but weren't concerned because the whales had traveled thousands of miles from Hawaii and were feeding.

They searched until they found a pod that were vocalizing with each other and tried the attempt again to record what they were saying.

The following day, the researchers dropped the speakers and recorders into the water and played back the recording of the sounds when a whale surfaced near the boat.

Dr Brenda McCowan (left) and Dr Fred Sharpe played a pre-recorded greeting call into the water as Twain came near their research vessel 

It took three attempts before Twain responded to the call and each time after that, the response became stronger and McCowan tried to match the pitch of the whale's responses who then adjusted her latency to match the recording.

Researchers created the underwater communication technology by using sophisticated hydrophones - an underwater recording device - and AI algorithms that record and analyze the sounds the whales make.

READ MORE: Artificial intelligence will decode clicking sounds made by whales

 The initiative, called Project CETI is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to interpret clicking sounds, or 'codas,' Sperm whales make to communicate with one another

The AI is trained on data from whale calls and the human language and looks for patterns and language structures.

Twain's continued response to the recording could have stemmed from the recording from the day before, according to researchers who said it turned out the whale had been part of that pod.

'It's very possible that this particular call was very salient to her, either because she...it was a group member hers that was producing the call, or perhaps even her own call,' McCowan told UC Davis, adding: 'We just don't know.

'But so this was a call that she would have been familiar with one way or the other. And maybe that's the reason why she responded so directly to it all and stayed with us for 20 minutes.

In the research paper, the team suggested that Twain's response was motivated by 'excitement and possibly the onset of agitation.'

When the researchers stumbled upon the pod in Alaska, Twain began circling the boat when the researchers played recorded humpback whale sounds. 

The six researchers who work for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) set out to understand humpback whale communication hope it can help when they connect with aliens.

'Because of current limitations on technology, an important assumption of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and so target human receivers,' said Dr. Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute and co-author of the paper. 

'This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,' she added.

'As far as we know, this has probably been the most elaborate acoustic interchange reported to date with a baleen whale,' Fred Sharpe, a co-author on the paper told UC Davis. 

'And the way that that was conducted and the fact that the animal hung around for so long, and interacted temporally with us. It opens the door for further dynamic playbacks.'