FDA Begins Using AI for Seafood Import Screening as Second Phase Pilot Begins
FDA recently launched the second phase of its Artificial Intelligence Imported Seafood Pilot program, and will over the next six months apply machine learning technologies in the field as part of its screening processes for seafood imports, the agency said in a constituent update Feb. 8. FDA says it does not anticipate disruptions to importers from the pilot, which began Feb. 1 and is set to run through July 31.
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FDA had announced its intent to move forward with phase two at the end of August (see 2009010045), after it successfully completed a proof of concept on applying machine learning for targeting purposes. During the proof of concept, FDA had applied machine learning to vast amounts of data on past seafood shipments, discovering that use of the technology resulted in a threefold increase in the likelihood of identifying violative shipments.
FDA’s Dan Solis, assistant commissioner-import operations, told members of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America that the technology will streamline and expedite the seafood import process as it “risk-ranks” shipments for safety, according to an update emailed Feb. 8 by the trade group. “Rather than looking at multiple databases manually, the AI screening tool analyzes large quantities of data points collected at import and crosschecks it with FDA internal databases, automatically identifying connections and patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed by previous screening techniques,” the NCBFAA said, citing Solis.
Following completion of the pilot, FDA will once again communicate its findings to the public, FDA said in its constituent update. “The pilot program will help the agency not only gain valuable experience with new powerful AI-enabled technology but also add to the tools used to determine compliance with regulatory requirements and speed up detection of public health threats,” FDA said. Data from the pilot program “will be studied and used to evaluate the utility of AI in support of import targeting, which may ultimately help implement an AI model to target high-risk seafood products,” FDA said.