Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste drift through polluted urban rivers and industrial waterways, ultimately reaching the world's oceans. A Hong Kong-based startup is offering a promising solution to combat this environmental crisis.

Open Ocean Engineering has introduced Clearbot Neo, an advanced AI-powered robotic boat designed to autonomously collect floating garbage. This innovative vessel operates in Hong Kong's bustling harbor, preventing tons of waste from entering the Pacific Ocean.

Having successfully completed its development phase, the team behind Clearbot Neo aims to expand its impact by deploying fleets of these robots worldwide to clean and safeguard our waters.

According to the United Nations, up to 95% of plastic pollution in the oceans is carried by just 10 major rivers, with eight of these located in Asia.

With about 11 million tons of plastic waste entering our oceans annually, cleaning up these waters has been a challenge due to outdated technology, high costs, and inefficiencies. However, a groundbreaking solution has arrived: an AI-powered boat named "Clearboat," developed by two Indian engineers.

This fully automated vessel uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and collect plastic waste in waters up to 2 meters deep. Operating on solar energy, Clearboat can gather around 250 kg of plastic in just one cycle.

The boat is equipped with two cameras: one to scan the water surface and detect debris while avoiding marine life, and another to trace the source of the trash. It was first tested in Umiam Lake, which suffers from significant siltation, with 40,000 cubic meters of silt entering annually. The Clearboat successfully removed 250 kg of garbage from the lake in under three hours.

This impressive technology raises the question: Could similar innovations be used to clean rivers like the Ganga or the Yamuna? Despite numerous initiatives over the past three decades, these rivers still face significant pollution issues. While we have the will to tackle this problem, we often lack the resources. AI offers a promising solution to this challenge.

AI isn't meant to replace human efforts but to enhance our ability to address problems that are beyond our current capabilities. This technology could make a real difference in other polluted rivers as well.

The Ocean Cleanup aims to deploy 10 of these larger systems in the near future, with the goal of removing up to 80% of the plastic debris from the North Pacific by the end of the decade.

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