US Naval Shipyard in Japan Eyes Workforce Improvements Through AI, Digital Technologies

The U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center plans to use artificial intelligence and digital technologies to improve its workflows.

According to Chief Information Officer Peter Guo, the organization’s workers, many of whom are Japanese, benefit from Google Meet’s live translation as it allows native English-speaking employees to communicate freely while the Japanese workers read the automatically generated captions. Guo added that Google Meet can also translate documents shipyard workers use for their tasks.

The facility’s short-term AI and machine learning goal is to manage and train vast amounts of data more efficiently so it could come up with an unbiased model, DefenseScoop reported Wednesday.

SRF-JRMC’s AI/ML and data pursuit is part of the Navy’s mission to integrate emerging technologies into the service.

In mid-June, the service announced that it would roll out the AI-based Amelia digital assistant under the $136 million Navy Enterprise Service Desk venture contract awarded to General Dynamics Information Technology. According to Travis Dawson, chief technology officer for GDIT’s Navy and Marine Corps sector, Amelia can answer questions, complete repetitive tasks and forward queries to a live agent.