You may have read my interview with VMax-founder Max Gurgel about his work of optimizing the all-new X-Yachts XR-41. Here, Max mentioned the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as one of the available tools in his setup. I found this intrigueing and thought: Well, since ChatGPT, Grok and a multitude of other AI-apps and programs are currently flooding our lives, what about the boating industry? Is AI a thing?
To start with the beginning, it´s the naval architects and designers who I asked first: Since I am in frequent contact with the most renowned, very big and also smaller design companies like VPLP, Marc Lombard Design Group or people like Matteo Polli, I wrote an email to all of them, asking: „Do you utilize AI tools in the design process of a yacht?“ Then I waited a few days for them to answer …
Artificial intelligence in yacht design
The outcome of my little survey was very interesting. I had thought that in some way or another all of those big design offices would at some point embrace the help of AI. But as it turned out, it is quite the contrary. It was just Matteo Polli who openly replied: „Yes, sure! Let´s talk about this!“ I had seen him in Duesseldorf in January and wanted to do the interview in person right on the booth of Grand Soleil, but unfortunately we were both so busy that we had to do it remotely a few weeks later.
Nevertheless, here´s what we´ve talked about and what Matteo told me: It´s a very interesting insight and – something that really calms me down a bit – a very reassuring circumstance:
NO FRILLS SAILING.com | Lars Reisberg: „So, Matteo – since when and where do you use AI in your work of designing new yachts?“
Matteo Polli: „Lars, let me start with some groundwork here. A definition, if you will. I would say that the term „artificial intelligence“, more specifically the word „intelligence“, is misleading, if not wrong. There really is nothing intelligent about these programs at all. I would say, as any tool without a master, these are rather dull. I prefer to call them „neural networks“. This is much more closer to what these things do: They mimic the calculating process of a brain. It´s more „machine learning“, not intelligence. It´s also worth mentioning that the technology used today is far from being new. It has been around for the past 20, 30 years! Those tools are commonly used in many businesses.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „So, what does this machine learning program do in your case at Matteo Polli Yacht Design?“
Matteo Polli: „In short: I utilize software for optimizing my hull shapes. It is basically the creation of iterations. For that, using a neural network is a great way of saving time because the computing power is awesome! For example, coming up with 5.000 different variations of a shape is something no human can do – especially not in such a short period of time …“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „Okay, but who needs 5.000 iterations of a boat shape …?“
Matteo Polli: „Exactly, Lars! This is the core of the whole thing right there! Those programs are useless without a human giving an input. Someone who is setting the marks, the restraints. Nobody needs 5.000 iterations, of course. So, the big question is: Where do you start and where do you end? Especially if you take into account that the so-called AI is making up stuff as well. Another very important aspect is the cost: It is still very, very expensive to run these big computers with the special software. So you can imagine that you could burn a lot of money. Wasted budgets. Let me tell you how it works for me: It all starts – always – with a hull shape made by myself. I use my experience, my imagination, my creativity and knowledge to develop a new hull. This, of course, is done also digitally from the start: Nobody is using paper anymore.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „Aha. That´s interesting: There is not a completely machine-generated hull shape or layout, right?“
Matteo Polli: „No, not at all! I come up with one or more hull shapes. You could call it the starting point. And of course I already have a very specific idea of where, which parts or which area, we could need an optimization for. So I develop another shape. Those two hulls are then fed into the software. We never start from scratch – the system needs a starting point and an end point. What it then needs are the parameters. These are the waypoints if you will, or the commands, telling the machine to run its calculations. Now, when starting, the neural network will spit out iterations between the first and the second along the said parameters. This could be, for example, an optimization of the true sailing performance versus the rating. But there are much more of course.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „I understand: Two starting shapes to begin with, a given set of specific parameters. It´s a more „aimed“ or „directed“ process …“
Matteo Polli: „… yes! Because you simply cannot tell the computer to just „make the boat better“. It needs a very exact set of rules and parameters. One process that can be used, is morphing. It will morph along the parameters and thus change the shapes. But let me specify on this: You absolutely can get lost in the process! You need to be very specific and strict, otherwise, the outcome is corrupt. For example, you can tell the machine to optimize CFD in terms of upwind performance or downwind performance. But of course there are limits. In this example, the limit would be the seastate: Waves, wave pattern but also their somewhat chaotic behaviour is very, very hard to simulate. So, mostly, the simulations and iterations are based on either no seastate, which doesn´t exist in real life as you know, or a „perfect“ wave pattern, which also can never be natural.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „That would mean that the real performance or behaviour of a boat can never be fully simulated digitally?“
Matteo Polli: „That is correct. At least for now. It is good enough to come up with really good variations and approximations in a relatively short amount of time. But even the most sophisticated computing power and neural network can do nothing without a starting point and clear directions where to go. So, you can say that even if, for example, the Grand Soleil 44 has been designed with AI, to use the common wording, it is still a true Matteo Polli design! Humans are the most powerful tool. This means, when we receive a set of generated designs, there will always be a set good designs – never the one. So the choice, which one to take and which to discard, is a human decision. In relation to the seastate or waves, me, the designer, will ultimately have to decide which hull will master the waves better and which won´t. “
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „You mentioned the budgetary side of AI-tools. Can you elaborate a bit more on this?“
Matteo Polli: „Yeah, sure. In my case, the software employed is basically the same used by many big and multinational corporations such as Boeing or Toyota. As I said before, these companies have been using neural networks, machine learning and so-called AI-tools for 20, 30 years now. This is the reason why there has been so much progress. These tools are very powerful. But runtime on the machines is expensive. Of course I don´t have a supercomputer in my office. Now, for a company like Boeing, the fact of investing tens of millions into R&D of airplanes, fighter jets and so forth is manageable because so do it for so many things. Thus, the cost of the very individual item optimized with AI is minimal. For us, doing one single hull-shape, an appendage like a keel or a rudder blade, is colossal!“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „That is why you try to limit runtime by putting in data that is as specific as it can be …“
Matteo Polli: „… yes, exactly! Because, ultimately, the budget my client gives me, is limited. And as I said, you can waste, literally burn, money if you don´t know what you are doing.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „You said that the machine is „making up“ stuff sometimes. This is something that is commonly known with those AI-tools. Like ChatGPT that is suddenly inventing „facts“. The same happens in your area as well then?“
Matteo Polli: „Yes. We always have to carefully evaluate what the computer puts out. Analyze the outcome, check if the things are plausible and really working. I don´t trust the machines. No really, even with the most sophisticated software in use, it never gets to the real thing. Obviously, this would be too easy, right? Even if it sounds very tempting. But, lucky for us designers and naval architects, it always needs the skills, creativity and knowledge of human brains. In the end, the thing with AI-tools is that, as with us humans too, it must make errors, right? It must make errors to refine and evolve. Our kids must crash a couple of times before they learn to ride a bicycle. Same here.“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „It´s for one thing a bit reassuring and calming me personally down to hear that from you, Matteo. On the other hand it kind of demystifies the AI-buzz.“
Matteo Polli: „Well, I´d say that those tools are good for what they can do. I mean, 40 years ago everybody was still using a pencil on drawing boards. They´ve built wooden models which had been towed through big water tanks. Then the first CAD designs came in with computerized calculations. It´s the normal evolution, an evolution of tools. AI is one of those tools. But you still need an operator, someone who knows about the strengths and also the limits of this tool. As for AI, in reality, the software alone is very inefficient if not run properly. You will be flooded by data if you don´t use it right. But on the other hand, the opportunities and chances are just awesome! Imagine: It takes not so much effort nowadays for me to create a brand new design in 3D: I then simply put on some VR-goggles and can virtually walk in my designs. No mock-ups or expensive models needed. It´s awesome!“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „I´d reckon that AI-optimization, given the huge amount of work that goes into the „feeding“ of the program, is just something for the, let´s say, upper-shelf high priced, ultra performance-oriented boats?“
Matteo Polli: „Well, no, not necessarily. As I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, AI-tools are basically „dumb“. This means also that you can optimize anything with them. Anything! So, for a company coming up with a new higly ORC-optimized racing boat the hull optimization is the obvious field of application. Whereas a large series production boatbuilder like Jeanneau may use it for optimizations to the production process, time savings and such. The question really is: What are your goals?“
NO FRILLS SAILING.com: „Last not least, Matteo, in all of your designs, one way or the other, is AI, or neural network-induced morphing. But it is still a Matteo Polli boat.“
Matteo Polli: „Correct. For example, for the the E-44 by Alfa Yachts, all the appendages shapes have been AI-optimized. But as you know, it´s never the computer that designs a boat, it´s still the human brain that knows how to employ the tools at hand. Be it a pencil, a wooden model, a 3D-wireframe or the neural network. Will designers be unemployed and useless one day? I don´t think so: It needs new ideas and inspiration. Machines don´t have that.“
Thanks so much, Matteo, always such a great pleasure and so informative talking to you! Next time in person again, I hope …
P.S. – I do not use AI-texting tools whatsoever. Neither for NO FRILLS SAILING.com nor for my professional work. Current text-generators in my eyes have no style, no humor. They may be good for making user-manuals but will never make exciting articles, fun stories or a worthwhile read. In this, please accept the few typos here and then in my articles: At least a sign that I´m not a lazy guy feeding you cheap AI-generated texts …
More about Matteo Polli & his boats:
Meeting Matteo at the Italia Yachts-production
Matteo on his (then) new Grand Soleil 44
Walkthrough in the Grand Soleil 52 Performance