With the rise of AI and ChatGPT around the world, what kind of changes can the yachting industry expect? It wasn’t very long ago that the term “Artificial Intelligence,” prompted the thought of Skynet and Arnold Schwarzenegger letting you know whether he’d be back or not. Now though, AI and ChatGPT have seen a meteoric rise that included plenty of practical uses in everyday life. They’ve gone from futuristic dreams to reality, and the yachting industry is not an exception; fields as complicated as navigation and as simple as writing a resume are being impacted. In 1950, Alan Turing wrote “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” In this paper, Turing, who is often referred to as the father of computer science, asked the question, “Can machines think?” He also introduced the term “Artificial Intelligence,” and the Turing Test, where a human must distinguish between a computer and human text response. AI has evolved in the decades since Turing’s groundbreaking work, using massive amounts of data to look for patterns. It then uses the patterns it finds to influence its own decision making. These advances have helped develop self-driving cars, create natural language processing tools like ChatGPT, and even help tools that are currently being used in the yachting industry, like SEA.AI. “It is artificial intelligence built around cameras, so for instance if you’re in an anchorage it could alert you that there are a bunch of jet skis coming your way,” said Erik Speyer, Director of Sales at Bluewater Superyacht Bridge Services. SEA.AI uses the latest on-board camera technology in combination with artificial intelligence to detect and classify objects surrounding a yacht, according to its company website. The system detects objects that usually escape radar or AIS such as floating obstacles, buoys, inflatables and persons overboard. SEA.AI works at all hours and in adverse conditions, alerting crew of potential obstacles in the water at all times. Another instance of AI being used in yachting is through cybersecurity. Speyer has helped install cybersecurity tools in yachts after the International Maritime Organization (IMO) mandated that Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) class vessels must have cybersecurity as a part of their International Safety Management (ISM) Code. “We just deployed a tool that’s doing cybersecurity monitoring on a vessel to help prevent any attacks and it’s built on an AI model,” Speyer said. “It learns the network and it learns what kind of normal operations look like, and then it will alert you if there’s something going on.” One interesting and useful element of new technologies like AI in yachting is that it doesn’t need to be agreed upon by every yacht owner in the world, Speyer said. One owner can decide they want to adopt certain technologies on their vessel, leading to innovation around the industry and development of newer technologies. “There’s an argument to be made that it’s a great testing ground for that very reason,” Speyer said. Another form of AI that might not directly impact the engineer room of a yacht but could impact the strength of a crew member’s CV is ChatGPT. Using AI technology, ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool that lets users have human-like conversations with it. A big difference between the conversations with a human and ChatGPT is that the AI tool scans around 300 billion pieces of words, images and content from the internet, according to Dave Nelsen, author, consultant, and president of Dialog Consulting Group. “The interesting thing about this technology is it doesn’t really have a learning curve; you can pretty much use it straight away if you know how to chat with a human,” Nelsen said. “The question is, what is your question or task, and then be prepared to be amazed.” With ChatGPT being so easily accessible, some worry that the work that employees are doing or the words that are meant to portray who they are aren’t written by them, but by AI. Although some may use the tool to make their work easier, Nelsen doesn’t believe ChatGPT can be fully relied on – at least not yet. “In respect to the content that it creates or advice it gives, it’s a first draft. It’s like you have a junior associate you just hired. They’re super smart, super fast, and pretty accurate, but not perfect,” Nelsen said. “You have to maintain a level of knowledge, oversight, and review that ultimately anything that you share was created in part based on help from ChatGPT. You have to own it.” Once the engines that run tools like ChatGPT are understood more, Nelsen believes they won’t make many mistakes, if any. Nelsen sees the tools becoming rock solid, dependable, and perfect in five to seven years. As for who is behind the writing of that impressive CV that might slide across a captain’s desk, the answer isn’t to try and find out if it was ChatGPT, but to focus on good interview processes instead, Nelsen said. He also encourages anyone creating a CV and worrying what their potential hirer might think to include something on your CV that makes clear it was created by you. “But I would say, as a hiring manager, buyers beware now because people have access to tools that can make really good content really fast, and I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to distinguish what was created by ChatGPT versus a good competent human,” Nelsen said. Although AI and ChatGPT could change the yachting industry in many ways, Speyer believes that even with the best technology two things always come first – safety and reliability. “You can have the latest and greatest technology out in the middle of the ocean, and if a computer goes down or you get struck by lightning, it’s useless,” Speyer said. “You’re always going to need someone that is trained and capable of running a ship.” Check out Triton’s Tech issue here!