Towards Safe and Sustainable Shipping: Legal and Ethical Guidelines for AI and Data Use in the Maritime Sector

The maritime sector is increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make operations more efficient, safe and sustainable. The use cases in shipping range from AI-driven decision-making regarding route optimalization and collision avoidance (smart shipping) to ship design and production planning (smart manufacturing).
Within the Maritime AI Innovation Lab, legal questions have been raised regarding data ownership and -governance, together with ethical concerns relating to control of data, values, and sustainability. The absence of clear legal and ethical preconditions for using AI in a safe and sustainable manner creates uncertainty, and may eventually hamper innovation and thus impede competitiveness.
This research project aims to provide the Maritime AI Innovation Lab partners and the broader maritime field with legally and ethically sustainable guidelines for the development of secure and responsible AI systems. In order to do so, the preconditions will have to be determined, which will then be translated in specific tools that support maritime actors in using AI and sharing data responsibly, without jeopardizing their commercial interests.
A strong focus lies with the interests that play a role in the maritime field, and attention goes out to the applicable national and international legal framework, as well as ethical considerations that play a role. Norms and values will be included in the design phase, to add a normative layer to this research project. As a result, the tools will be useable in practice and ethically supported by maritime practice and society.
The outcome of this research will be an integrated framework of legal, ethical, and normative tools that support safe, sustainable, and transparent adoption of AI and data sharing in the maritime field.