Will AI win the Pacific Cup?

by Michael Moradzadeh, Latitude 38
AI beats humans at chess, Go programming, and Jeopardy! Is sailing next? As a Pacific Cup race board member, I wanted to share some of our thoughts about what keeps the fun in the “Fun Race to Hawaii.”

Artificial Intelligence is appearing everywhere. The magic technology is ghostwriting term papers and email replies and writing sophisticated software, and even driving autonomous taxis.

With the ability to learn over time and access wide swaths of data and convert it into an intelligible and useful format, AI has become a powerful and accessible tool in the hands of many. With Starlink, it operates offshore.

Sailors will surely benefit. NOAA has recently announced the integration of AI into its weather models, and sail and yacht designers will use AI-assisted tools to enhance their work too.

For the racer and voyage planner, AI-assisted polar generation and routing are already available for a modest fee from PredictWind or others. You can even get AI to help write your blog posts as you cheerily tell folks on land about your adventures.

Just over the horizon, however, things may not be so cheery. Starlink gives racers the ability to bring AI’s “brain power” with them so that AI and advanced instrumentation could easily destroy the fun. – Full report