Application of artificial intelligence in aquaculture – Recent developments and prospects

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers innovative and efficient solutions to contemporary challenges in sustainable aquaculture. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) are integral components of smart aquaculture, driving significant advancements in the field. The integration of AI with ML, and DL technologies is transforming traditional aquaculture practices by enhancing operational efficiency, optimizing fish health management, improving environmental conditions, monitoring water quality and supporting advanced decision-making processes. This review highlights the latest applications of AI, including ML, and DL in aquaculture, emphasizing their roles in real-time water quality monitoring, disease detection, and automated estimation of fish biomass etc. Key techniques, including predictive modeling, image and video processing, and sensor data integration, are enabling these breakthroughs. Moreover, DL algorithms, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, have emerged as powerful tools for processing complex data and predicting critical events within aquaculture systems. Despite the notable progress, challenges such as the need for large, labeled datasets, high computational costs, and issues related to model interpretability continue to limit broader adoption. The current review aims to offer researchers and practitioners with a comprehensive overview of AI and its subfields such as ML and DL applications in smart aquaculture, discussing both the opportunities and challenges while suggesting future research directions to overcome existing limitations and expand AI-driven innovations in the industry.