Commercial and Maritime Law in China and Europe
Chapter 17
Page 235
Forward Planning – Regulation of Artificial Intelligence and Maritime Trade
Page 235
This chapter, in concluding this very timely book, evaluates the continuing regulatory challenges for maritime trade in the light of rapid technological changes. The scope of the subject is indeed so wide that a single, discrete chapter would not be able to do it proper justice. There is already much ink spilt on the various technological developments to commercial shipping – from the 1990s issues of electronic bills of lading and dematerialisation of shipping documents to the early 2000s when electronic financial solutions were introduced to supply chains, trade financing and warehousing, and then onwards to more recent times, when autonomous shipping and blockchains became the flavour of the month. This chapter chooses to focus on the emerging influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in shipping and international commerce. AI solutions are incrementally designed for use in shipping – an obvious application is in autonomous ships, but in truth, there are far more “disruptive” applications being developed to optimise business processes, voyage and cargo planning and vessel maintenance. The continuing impact of AI on maritime trade is undeniable. Parallel to this technological momentum in the maritime business, governments, including those from the US, EU, UK and PRC, have been quick to respond with proposals for policy and/or regulatory intervention.