Page 6: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2024)

Training Tips for Ships

Tip #60

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AI to Maritime Trainers: “Watch Your Back” [Part 2]

By Murray Goldberg, CEO, Marine Learning Systems ast month’s Training Tips for Ships discussed the genuine connections and therefore would be unable to under- role of Arti? cial Intelligence (AI) in the future of stand the deeper nuances of human emotions. Human empa- maritime training. My thoughts on this were trig- thy, intuition, and the ability to build trust would be compro-

Lgered by the recent headline in the Financial Times: mised and it is reasonable to think that their lack could affect “Andreessen Horowitz raises $7.2bn and sets sights on AI the training experience. start-ups“. Andreessen Horowitz is one of Silicon Valley’s Another argument focuses on AI’s simple lack of a physical most prominent venture capital ? rms and they are seeing ? t body, and the experience derived from using that body in a to deeply invest in the burgeoning AI revolution. Typically, maritime setting. AI might be able to simulate or model physi- this means change is upon us on a timescale that is now very cal skills, but the learnings gained from actually performing meaningful to us. As I said in last month’s article, AI is no these tasks in real-world conditions is (for now) unique to hu- longer a “tomorrow” thing. It is a “today” thing. mans. Maritime trainers’ ? rsthand experiences allow them to

The question at hand for the purposes of Training Tips for convey subtle, real-world insights that an AI might struggle to

Ships is whether AI will replace us as maritime trainers. Last understand and convey. On the other side of this, any aspects month we made the argument that it could. This month, we of maritime training that require the demonstration of physical look at the more comforting (to some) counter arguments - skills could obviously pose a problem for an AI. How can it those supporting the idea that AI could never fully replace us get around this basic issue?

humans in our role as maritime trainers. The strongest argu- A third argument comes in the form of an AI’s ability to men- ments against AI fully replacing us tend to focus on the human tor a trainee and act as a role model. The role of a mentor goes element or the soft skills that trainers bring to the training ex- beyond knowledge transfer; it involves inspiring, motivating, perience. Can an AI replicate these? It depends on your opin- and guiding individuals in their careers. The mentor-mentee ion of what the future brings - so let’s look at some examples relationship is deeply personal and relational, requiring trust, of these arguments. respect, and con? dence. This is something that an AI, no mat-

Our ? rst argument focuses on the role that the emotional ter how advanced, might ? nd hard to authentically replicate.

connection between trainer and trainee plays in the learning This brings us to the fundamental questions of trust and experience. Many argue that AI would struggle to form these credibility. To truly act as an effective trainer and mentor, the 6 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • June 2024

MR #6 (1-17).indd 6 6/4/2024 11:11:46 AM