An autonomous robot designed to mine polymetallic nodules from the deep ocean employs AI to detect and avoid marine life. Tested in a harbor, this innovative system is lauded for its potential to reduce the environmental footprint of deep-sea mining, aiming for 95% accuracy in avoiding lifeforms larger than 1mm. However, experts remain skeptical, emphasizing the ecological risks involved in disrupting deep-sea habitats, with calls for caution in pursuit of these valuable metals.
"We felt that a vehicle that used AI to look for life and avoid it could have much less of an environmental footprint," explains Oliver Gunasekara, co-founder and chief executive of Impossible Metals.
"Mining would by its nature remove the very substrate of life in and on the deep seafloor, no matter the technology," says Jessica Battle, who leads the global no deep-seabed mining initiative at the WWF.
"If you're not sure what's down there, then leave it alone," says John Childs at Lancaster University. "That's been the widespread position from science [to date]."
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