A crude tanker slows off a chokepoint and its AIS transponder, the automatic signal ships broadcast to identify themselves and their position at sea, goes dark for eleven hours. The distance between those two readings has almost nothing to do with how advanced the AI model is. I lead products for the AI capabilities customers use at Kpler, a maritime and commodity trade intelligence company. Ship and cargo movements are leading indicators of commodity supply and demand, the kind of signal that moves energy prices. That is the moment the dark transponder stops being a data gap and becomes a question somebody has to answer.