Using LLMs for Analyzing AIS Data

Data Science and Engineering Lab Universit e libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium gaspard.merten@ulb.be Data Science and Engineering Lab Universit e libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium gilles.dejaegere@ulb.be Data Science and Engineering Lab Universit e libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium mahmoud.sakr@ulb.be Abstract --Recent research in Large Language Models (LLMs), has had a profound impact across various fields, including mobility data science. This paper explores the and experiment with different approaches to using LLMs for analyzing AIS data. We propose a set of carefully designed queries to assess the reasoning capabilities of LLMs in this kind of tasks. Further, we experiment with four different methods: (1) using LLMs as a natural language interface to a spatial database, (2) reasoning on raw data, (3) reasoning on compressed trajectories, and (4) reasoning on semantic trajectories. We investigate the strengths and weaknesses for the four methods, and discuss the findings. The goal is to provide valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners on selecting the most appropriate LLM-based method depending on their specific data analysis objectives. The significant development in artificial machine learning has also opened the way to new approaches to solve real-world geospatial problems. In particular, Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools for understanding and generating human-like text. These models have demonstrated remarkable abilities in natural language processing tasks, from answering complex queries to summarizing and interpreting information in various domains. This exponential increase of LLMs usage can also be witnessed in the domain of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in recent years.