TidalX AI: How Artificial Intelligence is powering the future of sustainable aquaculture

When you think of artificial intelligence, your mind might jump to self-driving cars or personalized shopping recommendations, not fish farming. But at TidalX AI, AI is making waves in an unexpected arena: sustainable aquaculture.

And not just incremental improvements.

We're talking about a moonshot-level transformation that could help feed a growing global population while protecting fragile ocean ecosystems.

“Our starting question was simple,” says Kira Smiley, Global Director of Sales and Marketing at TidalX AI. “How can we feed the world without depleting the oceans?”

Born out of X, the Moonshot Factory, Alphabet’s legendary innovation lab, TidalX embodies the ethos of solving global challenges through radical, 10x breakthroughs.

It’s no surprise that TIME Magazine named TidalX one of the Best Inventions of 2023.

In a recent episode of BlueTech Around the World, I sat down with Kira to explore how this cutting-edge technology is reshaping fish farming and what it means for the future of food.

From moonshot to fish farm: Where AI meets aquaculture

Aquaculture might not seem like the obvious playground for high-tech innovation. But with over 3 billion people relying on seafood for protein, and wild fisheries under mounting pressure, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

When Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory turns its gaze to the ocean, expect ambitious experiments: turning seawater into fuel, farming seaweed for carbon capture, deploying floating solar panels. Some never see the light of day. But their lessons paved the way for TidalX.

“We had so many marine sustainability experiments over the past decade,” Kira explains. “Even though those didn’t ‘graduate,’ the learnings accumulated. TidalX was built on that foundation.”

The spark came when Mowi, the world’s largest salmon farming company, approached X with a question: Could they create real-time underwater insights that didn’t rely on manual sampling and outdated data?

That partnership catalyzed TidalX into reality.

“Instead of pulling 10 or 100 fish out of the water for samples, our system sees tens of thousands of fish every day,” Kira says. “It’s a complete shift in scale and precision.”

At its core, TidalX leverages AI-powered underwater perception systems to transform the way fish are farmed. Forget relying solely on farmer intuition; now, data guides every decision.

“Imagine having an intelligent assistant underwater, constantly watching the fish and telling you, ‘They’re hungry now,’ or ‘The water’s too warm—adjust the system,’” Kira explains.

That precision doesn’t just improve efficiency. It saves feed, boosts fish health, and reduces environmental harm. It’s a shift from reactive farming to preventive, data-driven aquaculture.

The technology: eyes, brains, and action

TidalX’s platform combines three pillars: hardware, software, and human collaboration.

The hardware?

Custom-built underwater camera systems designed to endure extreme marine environments. Not just static cameras, but mobile systems that traverse giant salmon pens on autonomous winches, capturing data from every angle.

“We realized early on—if we were serious about software, we had to build our own hardware,” Kira notes.

The software?

AI-powered computer vision capable of detecting fish, tracking growth, counting sea lice, monitoring health indicators, and analyzing environmental conditions like temperature and salinity, all in real time.

And the secret sauce? A feedback loop with farmers and aquaculture experts.

“Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Kira emphasizes. “We worked side-by-side with farmers to refine what mattered most: fish growth, health, sea lice, feeding efficiency, environmental impacts.”

Instead of “tech for tech’s sake,” TidalX designed a collaborative ecosystem where users contribute insights, helping improve the AI’s accuracy and relevance.

Real-time insights that change the game

What difference does it make when you have 24/7 underwater intelligence?

Plenty. Farmers gain real-time data on:

• Fish welfare (skin lesions, abnormal behavior)

• Sea lice counts (key for regulatory compliance)

• Biomass growth (crucial for sales planning)

• Feeding efficiency (preventing wasted feed and seabed pollution)

 “If fish feed falls to the seafloor, it’s not just wasted money, it damages the environment,” Kira explains. “Our system adjusts feeding rates dynamically to prevent that.”

Instead of reacting to problems, farmers can intervene early, avoiding disease outbreaks, minimizing mortality after treatments, and planning harvests with confidence.

“Instead of waiting until fish get sick or growth slows down, farmers can intervene early, like preventive care in human health,” Kira says.

And in regions like Norway, where sea lice (one of the industry’s most stubborn parasites) threaten salmon welfare and farm profitability, TidalX’s automated lice detection is a game changer.

Using computer vision, the system tracks lice counts without manual sampling, improving welfare while saving time.

“We can spot lice trends before they spike,” says Kira. “We’re moving from insight to early warning—and eventually to prediction.”

Beyond fish health, TidalX’s platform helps farmers optimize harvest planning, reduce feed waste, and monitor water quality, all critical levers for sustainability and profitability.

“It’s not just about technology for technology’s sake,” Kira emphasizes. “It’s about co-creating solutions with farmers to solve their real-world challenges.”

Partnering with nature, Not working against it

Aquaculture has long faced criticism for its environmental impacts: nutrient runoff, disease spread, escaped fish disrupting wild stocks. But TidalX sees technology as a tool to mitigate, not amplify these risks.

By continuously monitoring environmental parameters, farmers can minimize their ecological footprint, reducing excess feed and preventing water quality deterioration.

“The goal is balance,” Kira says. “We’re helping farmers be more productive while also being stewards of the environment.”

The impact extends beyond individual farms.

With better data, policymakers and industry leaders can set smarter regulations and practices that support ecosystem health at scale.

Engineering for harsh seas

Building underwater AI isn’t for the faint-hearted. Harsh ocean conditions, cold temperatures, biofouling, murky waters, push hardware and software to their limits.

Building AI for the ocean isn’t easy. Cameras must withstand freezing Arctic waters, storms, marine corrosion, biofouling, and relentless waves.

“One unexpected challenge? Preventing our cameras from fogging or getting covered in algae,” Kira laughs. “We had to completely rethink the design to keep the lenses clear in such extreme environments.”

One clever workaround?

In the early days, TidalX built a “fish racetrack”, a controlled loop where fish swam past cameras to create initial training datasets for the AI.

“We literally had fish running laps to collect images from every angle,” Kira laughs.

Over time, the hardware evolved to survive real-world deployments, aided by fleet management software monitoring every pen, every camera, every sensor for anomalies.

“If one system suddenly sees fewer fish, that’s a flag to check if a camera’s fouled or offline,” Kira explains.

Beyond technical durability, the human factor posed another challenge: How do you introduce cutting-edge tech into an industry steeped in tradition?

Working with, not against farmers

Many farmers pride themselves on knowing their fish intuitively: the way they swim, the color of the water, subtle behavioral cues.

TidalX embraced that expertise, positioning its platform as an augmentation, not a replacement.

“We’re not taking away expertise—we’re giving farmers more insight to make even better decisions,” Kira says.

Farmers also contribute feedback via the collaboration platform, co-creating new features and refining AI models.

“It’s a positive feedback loop,” Kira notes. “They tell us, ‘Have you considered looking at this behavior?’ And we build toward that.”

This partnership approach fosters trust and adoption, especially critical as TidalX looks to expand into regions with more traditional practices, like the Mediterranean.

Data privacy is also a key concern.

TidalX prioritizes secure, transparent data practices, recognizing that information about fish health, production cycles, and environmental conditions is commercially sensitive.

Scaling beyond salmon

And what about accessibility for smaller-scale farmers or those in developing regions?

 “We’re actively exploring ways to make the technology more modular and scalable, so it can benefit farms of all sizes—not just the big players,” Kira notes.

While TidalX’s initial focus has been high-value salmon farming in Norway, Chile, and Australia, its sights are set broader.

The AI models were designed modularly, not just for salmon, but adaptable to other finfish species, shellfish, and even seaweed farming.

“We’ve done early work with yellowtail and seabream in Japan, and seaweed biomass detection in Fiji and Indonesia,” Kira shares.

Even the software and hardware are decoupled, allowing TidalX’s algorithms to integrate with other camera systems for different environments.

The goal? A scalable platform for a diverse global aquaculture sector.

“From the start, we built for expansion,” Kira affirms. “We want to be a platform for the broader ocean economy.”

A vision for aquaculture’s future

Kira sees real-time monitoring as only the first step.

The next frontier? Prediction.

“Once you have real-time insights, you can start forecasting: disease risks, optimal harvest windows, environmental shifts,” she says.

And beyond prediction lies integration across the aquaculture value chain, from genetics to feed formulation to climate resilience.

“I’m excited about what’s next: robotics, genomics, and even deeper integration of biological and environmental data could unlock new frontiers in sustainable aquaculture,” she says.

“What got us here won’t get us forward,” Kira reflects. “Climate change is rewriting the rules. We need tools that help farmers adapt to new diseases, rising temperatures, changing parasites.”

In short, aquaculture needs moonshots.

Advice for Ocean Innovators

For entrepreneurs eyeing the blue economy, Kira offers hard-won wisdom:

“Find experts early. Listen deeply before assuming you know the solution,” she advises. “And always ask: Is this the right tool for this problem?”

She cautions against over-engineering when simpler fixes might suffice.

“Don’t be the space committee that built a fancy pen when a pencil would do,” Kira quips.

Finally, she champions the Moonshot Factory’s mantra: “Start with the hardest thing first.”

“If you test the hardest part early, you’ll know whether to keep going or pivot. Don’t spend years perfecting what’s already solvable.”

A blueprint for Blue Innovation

TidalX AI isn’t just bringing AI underwater. TidalX AI represents more than just an aquaculture tech company.

It’s bringing a mindset: bold, collaborative, relentlessly curious.

It’s a blueprint for how radical innovation can tackle global food security while safeguarding ocean ecosystems.

“Every farm that adopts our system is a step toward proving that profitability and sustainability aren’t at odds,” Kira concludes. “We’re building a future where they go hand-in-hand.”

By blending moonshot thinking with practical collaboration, TidalX is paving the way for a smarter, more sustainable blue economy, one fish at a time.

To learn more, visit tidalx.ai.

And if you enjoyed this deep dive, don’t forget to subscribe to BlueTech Around the World for more stories at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and the sea.

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Stay connected with Kira Smiley

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kira-smiley-global/

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