DeepSea Technologies has announced its partnership with other institutions and researchers in the field of AI to launch the Shifts Project. The international collaboration of academic and industrial researchers is dedicated to studying and solving problems associated with distributional shift for real-world impact.
Handling distributional shift is one of the greatest obstacles to the widespread adoption of AI across all industries. This is especially the case in shipping, which has been chosen as one of two case study challenges.
Alongside DeepSea, the Shifts Project is an international effort involving multiple institutions, including the universities of Cambridge, Basel, Lausanne, and HES-SO Valais. The initiative brings together core machine learning (ML) researchers studying distributional shift with applied ML researchers, who work on tasks affected by distributional shift in the real world.
A great example of distributional shift is found in maritime, where the entire ship data set moves over time, as a result of hull fouling. Understanding how the entire ship data shifts over time is crucial to accurately modelling vessels.
The development of robust models is essential to enable the effective deployment of this AI-based technology to reduce the carbon footprint of global supply chains. This will also act as a stamp of approval for all companies working with AI in the shipping industry.
Commenting on the challenge, Dr Nikitakis, DeepSea’s Head Research Scientist, said:
This is an internationally important research field for all of AI, and managing distributional shift is a topic that we have been focused on since our inception. It’s a critical prerequisite to using the technology to generate real impact for companies both now and in the future
