The vessel Merope anchored in the bay of Ceuta, Spain, after having carried out oil transfer operations in international waters, 14 March 2023 Antonio Sempere/Associated Press/Alamy
Artificial intelligence can spot stealthy cargo transfers between “dark ships”, vessels that have switched off their identification transponders. This could make it much easier to track the shadow fleet secretly transferring crude oil in defiance of international sanctions.
Such ship-to-ship transfers at sea have skyrocketed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine spurred the European Union to ban the import of Russian crude oil. Although the G7…
