Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Before generative AI was everywhere, Emirates Team New Zealand was already sailing and winning with it.

In 2019, ahead of the 36th America’s Cup, the team partnered with McKinsey and QuantumBlack to build a reinforcement learning agent that could sail inside a virtual simulator — accelerating foil testing nearly 10x.

The result wasn’t just better foil design. The sailors began learning from the agent itself — using it as a tutor to refine maneuvers, improve tacking decisions, and ramp up faster on new configurations.

Some of the most brilliant moves begin with the humility to question what already works.

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