Bangkok: The Ministry of Fisheries is expediting enhancements to the 'Thailand FishAI' system, with a focus on utilizing the allocated 9 million baht budget for research, data collection, and AI system development. Representatives from the Department of Fisheries have addressed public concerns about the application's effectiveness and cost-efficiency, clarifying that system upgrades are being prioritized.

According to Thai News Agency, General Phisin Suwannachai, a fisheries management expert and head of the 'Thailand FishAI' project, outlined the project's goal to create a 'mobile aquatic library.' This initiative intends to compile digital information on aquatic species, facilitating public access to this data. The application also leverages artificial intelligence to identify fish species, aiding in the exploration of Thailand's aquatic resources and enabling public interaction with Department of Fisheries officials. This interaction reduces travel costs and encourages public participation in expanding the national biodiversity database. The application is set to rectify initial inaccuracies in fish species identification.

General Phiphasit further elaborated on the efforts to improve the system by introducing a data filtering mechanism. This feature ensures that non-fish images are not classified, prompting users to provide clearer images. Currently, the system can accurately classify 50-52 fish species, with models selected based on a minimum accuracy of 70% before implementation. The project has amassed over 50,000 fish images from aquaculture farms to ensure high-quality training data, thus avoiding copyright issues. The Department of Fisheries opted to develop the AI domestically, safeguarding data sovereignty and reducing long-term expenses, as foreign services would incur additional processing costs.

The project, known as the "Development of a Prototype Artificial Intelligence System for Fish Species Classification for Participatory Fisheries Resource Survey and Conservation (Thailand FishAI)," received funding amounting to 9,193,300 baht. General Phiphasit clarified that the budget encompasses more than application development, covering personnel costs, equipment, cloud services, back-end system development, and user training, all adhering to government procurement standards.