What is AI in shipping?

Over the last 30 years as satellite communications made data sharing with ships virtually ubiquitous one thing that hasn’t been missing is the over use of buzzwords and claims of doom for the human in shipping. The relentless drive for column space in the media provides space for the fanciful and misunderstandings of how technology gets used or applied. This combined with opinions of those who have never been on a ship much less, command one or run a shipping company provides fertile ground for dreamy claims. I get shipping is a romantic notion, but the reality is so much more different than staged conferences and parties portray.

AI is the new buzzword. Its positive impact should be profound where it is used properly and as a tool for humans to operate ships more effectively. It will be catastrophic where it is used improperly, immorally or fraudulently. That said, at the moment it seems we are consumed with considering AI as a revolutionary concept, and not as a tool to make lives better or more effective and efficient.  

The ability to data share between the office and ship, the satellite communications revolution and the sensors and software tools was supposed to have made ship operations safer. However, in many cases we simply layered technology onto the manual tasks, and over burdened the ships crew. Combine this with a fragmented implementation of technology on ships and it cannot be deemed fully a success.  

Maybe AI will allow this to be a do over and make efficient operations much more effective and finally lighten the load to allow safer operations?       The messaging on AI is wild and diverse. On one hand, it is a doom of destroying seafarer jobs, and on the other a dreamy world of humans just sitting on the sidelines while AI does everything.

Neither makes a lot of sense and they miss the point; humans will decide the future of AI in shipping. Is it an agent for good or bad? Every time someone refers to asking ChatGPT, etc, it’s using it as a smart search engine nothing more. Thats not AI, thats lazy search engine antics.

Those who create AI-generated smart tools for the operations of the mundane, but necessary ship operations will be leveraging an ability to make ship operations safer, freeing humans to do the oversight. This is an area in navigation that has been in the works for some years. It has not replaced the seafarer, merely increased the support level for safety. But it will only be effective if it replaces tasks and enables the human to be safer and smarter in their operations.

So like all of these technologies over the last 30 years that have become more common in shipping, we should be listening to the operators and not the providers, resellers or inventors – the operators who will decide the direction and the use of AI in shipping and maritime operations. But the question that remains is, will they embrace the ability to create a much more effective operation using the new tool, AI? Or, will we add tools that are just layered onto the already over burdened operator’s life? Buzzword or breakout operations?