Operate underwater video, sonar, recording, or related equipment to investigate underwater structures or marine life.

“Operate underwater video, sonar, recording, or related equipment to investigate underwater structures or marine life.” is a core task performed by Commercial Divers. Among the occupation's 25 rated tasks, workers place it 15th by importance (#11 most important). About 95% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Record images with photographic or audiovisual equipment. in Documenting/Recording Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.002% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• 91% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Take appropriate safety precautions, such as monitoring dive lengths and depths and registering with authorities before diving expeditions begin. · importance 4.8
• Check and maintain diving equipment, such as helmets, masks, air tanks, harnesses, or gauges. · importance 4.7
• Communicate with workers on the surface while underwater, using signal lines or telephones. · importance 4.6
• Descend into water with the aid of diver helpers, using scuba gear or diving suits. · importance 4.2
• Obtain information about diving tasks and environmental conditions. · importance 4.2
• Supervise or train other divers, including hobby divers. · importance 4.2
• Inspect the condition of underwater steel or wood structures. · importance 4.0
• Inspect and test docks, ships, buoyage systems, plant intakes or outflows, or underwater pipelines, cables, or sewers, using closed circuit television, still photography, and testing equipment. · importance 4.0
• Repair ships, bridge foundations, or other structures below the water line, using caulk, bolts, and hand tools. · importance 4.0
• Recover objects by placing rigging around sunken objects, hooking rigging to crane lines, and operating winches, derricks, or cranes to raise objects. · importance 3.9
• Take test samples or photographs to assess the condition of vessels or structures. · importance 3.8
• Cut and weld steel, using underwater welding equipment, jigs, and supports. · importance 3.7
• Install, inspect, clean, or repair piping or valves. · importance 3.7
• Carry out non-destructive testing, such as tests for cracks on the legs of oil rigs at sea. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Commercial Divers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-13866,
  title  = {Operate underwater video, sonar, recording, or related equipment to investigate underwater structures or marine life.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-13866}
}