As part of the research for the second edition of my book Making Waves: PR Strategies to Transform Your Maritime Business, it is increasingly clear that AI presents new and growing risks to organisations’ reputations.
There is an inherent danger in being dazzled by the shiny new AI toy. PR professionals must be disciplined—using AI as a tool to assist, not something to surrender to.
AI is not intelligent. It is not sentient, lacks awareness of context, and does not think.
AI outputs have no ethical compass and do not understand a company’s values unless those values are clearly and carefully built into its instructions.
This is where human judgment and the role of the PR professional is more important than ever in managing how AI is used.
AI content depends entirely on the quality of data the large language model (LLM) has been trained on. Think of it like automated translation software: it anticipates words based on patterns in large datasets, effectively parroting sequences without understanding their meaning.
PR professionals must take a more sober view of AI and consider reputational risks such as deep fakes, copyright infringement, inaccurate responses, data sharing, privacy breaches, misinformation, and bias.
Another concern is energy use, which may conflict with company sustainability goals. A single ChatGPT query, for example, uses an estimated 2.9 watt-hours (Wh) of electricity—around 10 times more than a standard Google search.
In the maritime sector specifically, AI also raises concerns around cybersecurity, seafarer safety, and regulatory compliance.
These are exactly the kinds of issues PR professionals should be horizon scanning for and advising maritime companies on at C-suite level.
If you would like support in building a robust AI policy for your organisation, please get in touch.