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

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

Beguš et al., 2026, Royal Society Open Science — Computer Science & AI

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions), [Relationships](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/relationships), [Perspectives](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/perspectives)

## 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.

## 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.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250829)