Maritime crew manager must deal with immigration regulations, travel plans and COVID every time a crew member changes. Email is a common way to communicate with port agents. This can quickly lead to an overload of messages sent between time zones. To simplify the entire process Greywing, the Singapore-based maritime intelligence platform backed by investors like Flexport and Y Combinator, announced today it has developed SeaGPTThe GPT4 AI Chatbot is a powerful AI Chatbot.
Greywing CEO Nick Clarke revealed in a recent statement that crew managers have asked them to fix the email overload problem. SeaGPT is a new tool that automates crew changes. Greywing plans to continue developing the tool and add new uses. The current version simplifies parts of the communication through automation, such as creating email with important questions or extracting information from port agency replies for specific crew.
Hrishi Oli, Greywing co-founder and chief technology officer, told TechCrunch SeaGPT is not a plug and play generative chatbot. It was possible thanks to GPT4 as well as a programming approach that is maritime-specific.
He added that email overload affects the number vessels a manager is able to manage at a time, as well as their ability to gather information for decisions. “If the information for one decision is spread across seven emails with replies in Excel files and PDFs, there are greater chances of human error. The maritime industry has a global focus. When time zones don’t function, crew managers have to be available 24/7 or wait days to speak with someone.
Greywing’s client, for example had a master that was injured and required immediate evacuation from his ship. The crew manager was required to find the port with the best medical facilities. They were near new ports, so it was necessary to send a lot of emails to coordinate their departure. SeaGPT could have reduced this time from hours to minutes.
How does SeaGPT function? The app is available on Greywing Slackbot’s mobile app and platform. It is planned to integrate it with WhatsApp Teams. Users can ask SeaGPT questions such as, “set up my crew changes in Melbourne.” Olickel tells crew managers they need to know the costs and restrictions of changing crew members, including COVID vaccination requirements and immigration regulations.
SeaGPT, who has access to Greywing’s proprietary data base, which covers 18,300 port locations and will then review the information, will then provide the required information. It will then ask for information like the type of vessel, nationality and names onboard or offboard. SeaGPT uses the information to create emails that are sent out to port agents. The questions include some that are often overlooked by busy crew managers.
SeaGPT is designed for error prevention. It does not allow hallucinations. It will flag if the requested information is not available rather than assume it was impersonated. Greywing allows its users to send emails via their platform and book flights if needed.
Olickel explains that crew managers receive emails in a variety of formats. It could be in a list, a paragraph or in another language. SeaGPT can assist by translating (languages it can handle include Hindi, Greek, and other languages), pulling out historical cost, and per-person, and then adding them to a user’s Greywing record.
SeaGPT initially was designed to communicate directly with port agents. Olickel said Greywing hopes that the software will develop to simplify communication among agents and seafarers as well as masters.
He said: “In future, we expect SeaGPT to be a team member or executive assistant for the crewing teams. It will be a simple tool which can be copied into communications when necessary.” It runs in the background, retrieving relevant data and handling all communications without direct intervention. It provides automated support to each crew member.