Geoffrey Hinton, a University of Toronto professor who was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 2024 for his work in AI, has predicted that AI could surpass human intelligence within 20 years.
The pace of AI development is now, in Hinton’s words, “very, very fast.”
The latest issue of Offshore Engineer magazine looks at how it is being developed within the industry.
The article titled The Higher the Stakes, the More Value AI Creates defines AI as technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy. IBM often puts it to use to advance asset management, operational efficiency and safety, and Carol Lee Anderson, IBM’s technology GM for the oil and gas industry, explains that the aim is never to take the human out of the loop, just to rid them of laborious and repetitive tasks and provide them with real-time decision support.
The article highlights a range of applications developed using AI including SLB’s Lumi data and AI platform which contextualizes data using large language models (models trained on large amounts of data and capable of understanding and generating natural language and other types of content to perform a wide range of tasks.)
The latest issue of Marine Technology Reporter magazine also highlights AI developments, this time for subsea vehicles including Beam’s Scout, an AI-powered AUV designed to independently perform offshore wind inspections, only reporting back at the end of the mission.
The potential of quantum computing will be considered in an upcoming issue of Marine Technology Reporter magazine. Quantum computing is expected to dwarf the current potential that AI holds for data processing and interpretation. Where a supercomputer might take a year to crunch a load of data, it could take just a few hours with a quantum computer.
The potential this power has for further advancing AI is only just being explored.