[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Approaching an unknown communication system by latent space exploration and causal inference

## Details

**Authors** Beguš et al.

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Royal Society Open Science

**Discipline** Computer Science & AI

**Secondary disciplines** Biology, Information Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250829) 
10.1098/rsos.250829

## In authors' words

### What they found (results)

Using causal manipulation of a generative model's latent space, the researchers found sperm whale vocalizations are structured around click count and click-timing regularity (as expected) plus two previously unrecognized properties, spectral mean and acoustic regularity.

## Commentary

### In short

An AI model is used to infer the internal structure of another species' communication system from an outside vantage point, with no shared frame of reference or ground-truth labels, by causally testing which distinctions in the model actually drive the signal.

**Patterns it shows** D, R, P

**Added** 2026-08-27

**How to cite this** Beguš et al. (2026). Approaching an unknown communication system by latent space exploration and causal inference. Royal Society Open Science.