A team of scientists from the SETI Institute, University of California Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation, had a close encounter with a non-human (aquatic) intelligence. The Whale-SETI team has been studying humpback whale communication systems in an effort to develop intelligence filters for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
We’ve long known it’s likely that some kind of communication is going on in whalesong, but it’s a pretty huge advance to have figured out enough to say “hello”
It would also be a breakthrough to know another species has a greeting, something which requires regular interaction with others and thus a form of society. If there is a consistency to the communication then there is also a potential for culture. If there is an equivalent of “hello” it would have the potential of changing everything.
Anthropology would be a broken up into species specializations and Cetaceopology would become a thing. Linguists will also have species specific terms for sounds outside of human vocal ability. AI will be trained on non-human speech. Everything will be different.