How AI Can Help Limit Damage from Oil Spills

While Oil Booms are commonly used as a fire-fighting tool to tackle oil spills, Artificial Intelligence is increasingly becoming the frontrunner as a problem solver to avert and mitigate effects of damaging oil spills in the future.

AI technologies such as Windward not just help preempt oil spills by alerting ship operators of weather changes, currents are other factors that cause oil spills but also help activists, local government bodies and NGOs involved in oil spills cleanup to identify root causes of oil spills once it occurs by establishing probable timeframes of the spill, and sieve out list of potential perpetrators based on the type of vessel and the vessels that were within the spill area at the time. Windward was instrumental in helping in the cleanup of the mediterranean sea oil spill that occurred in February 2021.

AI technologies involve a high upfront capital cost for set-up for the marine industry, but it is far less expensive than the costs associated with reputational damage and environmental impact that an oil spill can have today, even accounting for expected costs given the small probability of an occurrence today.