In the first Turing Lecture for families, wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill reveals how a close encounter with a humpback whale inspired him to find out whether we could ever talk to these ocean giants.

We invite you to submerge yourself in Tom’s underwater world, hear about the amazing advances scientists are making in decoding animal communication, and be rumbled by the voices of our deep-sea orca-stra!

About the event

In 2015, wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill was almost crushed by a humpback whale while kayaking in California. Fascinated by these otherworldly creatures, he began to investigate how researchers are using AI, undersea robots, and animal spying devices to do something incredible: decipher whale song.

Tom will break down what it will take to speak to a whale, in a whistlestop tour covering the biology and lives of whales, new discoveries about their communications, what AI is and how it can help, and updates from the latest research expeditions.

The event will feature videos from the backs of whales, recordings from the deep sea, pieces of real whales and dolphins, and the chance to feel the vibrations of the biggest voices on the planet through your entire body.

It’ll be an afternoon whale-spent for the whole family!

This lecture is in collaboration with The Alan Turing Institute.

An access fund is available for anyone who would otherwise be unable to attend. Please contact events@turing.ac.uk to enquire.

This is a theatre event, where the speaker and audience in our theatre are joined by an online audience. For Theatre attendees, the address is 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BS.

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