EBA-AI: Ethics-Guided Bias-Aware AI for Efficient Underwater Image Enhancement and Coral Reef Monitoring

TL;DR

EBA-AI is an ethics-guided, bias-aware AI framework that improves underwater image enhancement for coral reef monitoring by reducing bias and computational costs while increasing transparency and trust.

Contribution

This work introduces EBA-AI, a novel framework that combines bias mitigation, energy efficiency, and explainability for underwater image enhancement.

Findings

Balanced dataset representation across environments.

Significant reduction in GPU usage enabling real-time processing.

Maintains competitive image quality despite efficiency improvements.

Abstract

Underwater image enhancement is vital for marine conservation, particularly coral reef monitoring. However, AI-based enhancement models often face dataset bias, high computational costs, and lack of transparency, leading to potential misinterpretations. This paper introduces EBA-AI, an ethics-guided bias-aware AI framework to address these challenges. EBA-AI leverages CLIP embeddings to detect and mitigate dataset bias, ensuring balanced representation across varied underwater environments. It also integrates adaptive processing to optimize energy efficiency, significantly reducing GPU usage while maintaining competitive enhancement quality. Experiments on LSUI400, Oceanex, and UIEB100 show that while PSNR drops by a controlled 1.0 dB, computational savings enable real-time feasibility for large-scale marine monitoring. Additionally, uncertainty estimation and explainability techniques enhance trust in AI-driven environmental decisions. Comparisons with CycleGAN, FunIEGAN, RAUNENet, WaterNet, UGAN, PUGAN, and UTUIE validate EBA-AI's effectiveness in balancing efficiency, fairness, and interpretability in underwater image processing. By addressing key limitations of AI-driven enhancement, this work contributes to sustainable, bias-aware, and computationally efficient marine conservation efforts. For interactive visualizations, animations, source code, and access to the preprint, visit: https://lyessaadsaoud.github.io/EBA-AI/