Interview between Adonis Violaris of CSN and Yarden Gross, Co-founder and CEO Orca AI.

Can you provide an overview of Orca AI’s mission and its core focus?

Orca AI’s mission is to enhance operational efficiency, safety, and performance across ship fleets using AI-driven solutions. By equipping onboard crews with actionable insights and automation through our SeaPod technology, we empower them to navigate more safely and efficiently. Simultaneously, we provide fleet managers with comprehensive visibility into fleet operations, enabling proactive measures to address operational gaps.

How does Orca AI’s technology contribute to enhancing maritime safety and efficiency?

Our SeaPod serves as an automatic watchkeeper onboard vessels, utilizing AI-powered cameras for real-time target detection and prioritization. The SeaPod offers early warnings to crews on high risk targets in the marine environment, enabling prompt and informed actions to minimize unnecessary maneuvers and ensure safer navigation.  In challenging conditions such as fog or night-time, 3 thermal cameras further enhance situational awareness, by  detecting potential risky targets that the human eye might not see.

What are the key features or benefits that Orca AI offers to ship owners and operators?

Orca AI provides robust data analysis and real-time monitoring for shore-side operations. By leveraging our extensive data insights, fleet managers can benchmark their vessels’ performance against industry standards and peers, facilitating continuous improvement through targeted training and policy adjustments.

How does Orca AI ensure the accuracy and reliability of its platform?

Our approach involves a meticulous data pipeline that collects ship data for AI training purposes. This data is continuously analyzed and refined to improve AI performance. Rigorous testing precedes the deployment of any updated AI models across the fleet, ensuring that each iteration enhances platform reliability and accuracy.

What role does collaboration with maritime authorities and industry stakeholders play in Orca AI’s strategy for delivering effective solutions?

Orca AI collaborates closely with major classification societies such as ABS, LR, and DNV, engaging in both short-term and long-term initiatives. These partnerships focus on certifying Orca AI’s capabilities, including our pioneering role as the first AI tool certified for navigational use onboard vessels. Long-term collaborations with entities like AIDA and Class NK aim to define standards for autonomous vessel operations, further advancing maritime technology.

We recently formed a groundbreaking collaboration with North Standard, one of the biggest marine insurers. They found that over time we’re impacting loss prevention and claims by reducing the close encounters, near-misses events, and dangerous events. So, now North Standard is subsidising Orca AI to their customers.

Do you have any autonomous vessels so far?

In 2022, Orca AI successfully demonstrated autonomous vessel operations in the Tokyo area in collaboration with NYK and a Japanese government consortium (DFFAS) , marking a significant milestone in maritime technology. While we prioritize automation over full autonomy for ocean-going vessels, our ongoing collaborations aim to optimize crew workload and enhance operational efficiency across diverse maritime operations.

What are the main trends or challenges in maritime operations, and how is Orca AI positioned to address them?

Connectivity emerges as a pivotal trend in maritime operations, transforming isolated vessels into connected hubs capable of leveraging advanced technologies like AI. Ships, which were isolated without any connectivity, are now becoming more and more connected to the cloud. It started with VSAT, now it’s Starlink, low-orbit communication, which is basically a game-changer. All of a sudden you have 5G in the middle of the ocean, you can collect data from any sensor, you can start deploying advanced technologies like AI.

AI is useless without data. So, if you don’t have connectivity, you don’t have data in scale, meaning that you can’t deploy AI on board vessels. Now, when you have connectivity, we’ll see more AI technologies being deployed on vessels to improve operation and safety.

How does Orca AI plan to continue innovating in maritime AI, and what new developments can we expect?

Orca AI remains at the forefront of maritime AI innovation by collaborating closely with customers to address operational challenges and enhance safety and efficiency. Leveraging our extensive dataset of more than 50M NM, we continue to pioneer new insights into vessel operations, including optimizing fuel efficiency through behavioral analysis and voyage optimization based on real-time weather data.

For example, we’re collecting data about how the ships are being operated and what is the fuel consumption. You have many drivers for fuel efficiency. One is the type of ship, the other one is the type of fuel. The third factor is something that not a lot of companies are actually tackling-  the crew behavior. Very similar to how we drive: If I’m braking a lot, speeding a lot, I will burn more fuel than, for example, you if I’m driving more mildly.  So, it’s very similar in ships. We see a lot of unnecessary maneuvers, extreme maneuvers that are happening. And if you can actually reduce them and provide recommendations on how to sail more efficiently, you can see a major fuel reduction.

We did, for example, with Marubeni Corporation: We worked closely together and they achieved a reduction of almost $100,000 only based on crew behavior in fuel consumption. 

Can smaller ship owners benefit from Orca AI’s services?

Absolutely, Orca AI serves a range of customers, from smaller fleets to larger enterprises, ensuring all benefit from our advanced analytics and benchmarking capabilities. Even smaller ship owners gain access to anonymized and aggregated data insights that enable them to benchmark their vessels against peers, ultimately improving their operational performance and safety standards.