AI AND BIG DATA AT SEA: THEIR POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON SEAFARERS

Khanssa Lagdami, Eslam Ramadan Badry Gad

Abstract


With the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big data, and advanced navigation systems, the shipping industry is revolutionizing in ways that offers advanced maritime safety and security, improvement of energy consumption, maintenance, and efficiency of voyages. This wave of technological advancement brings with it a sense of optimism. At the same time, however, it opens up questions about what these technologies mean in terms of the working conditions and Occupational Safety and Health of Seafarers (OSH). This research paper discusses the increased application of AI and Big Data in the maritime sector, and it explicitly explores their possible application to monitor and surveil seafarers at sea. The paper examines what the potential consequences of deploying such advanced technologies might be in order to oversee and regulate the work of seafarers within an environment where boundaries between work and private life are often blurred. It is in-depth research into the current application of AI in maritime operations with regard to tracking and surveillance, optimization, and safety, therefore giving a proper understanding of the subject. However, despite the fact that there is no documented evidence of AI and big data being used against seafarers, the authors have gone further to discuss how this could be possible, making use of the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) as an example of collecting data onboard vessels. VDR can be taken as the closest existing technology to AI applied on board ships. Such a tool, as discussed by the authors, can monitor several features of a ship operating at sea: navigation, the performance of the machinery, and human activities. It is this possible use of information against the seafarers themselves in the case of accidents or any other incidents that occur at sea that scares them. Apart from being exciting, there are significant issues around privacy, ownership of data, and perhaps impacting on the rights and responsibilities of the seafarer. This paper contributes to this debate now current with its examination of technology advancements and outcomes in trying to reach balance between technological advance with the well-being and rights of seafarers within this ever- changing automatised Maritime Industry. This is a conversation that needs to be shared among all the stakeholders, from the players in the maritime industry to the policymakers and academics, in order to come up with an evolved consensus on what that future should be. 

Keywords


AI and Big Data, Impacts, Work at sea, seafarers

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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21622/MARLOG.2025.14.1.66

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