APRIL 2024 5 GENERATIVE AI When it comes to AI, aka artificial intelligence, people either know all about it or they don’t. The everyday person assumes that AI is a giant talking head of a computer that, after digesting all of the knowledge on the World Wide Web and digital social media, should be able to answer any question we pose. That it can look and talk like a human is one thing. It might even innocently spew out a particularly noxious answer, simply because it doesn’t understand social norms as well as some people do. Or perhaps it does understand them, which is why it spews out noxious dialogue. Garbage in. Garbage out. It’s true that on AI sites such as ChatGPT, we can ask the brain to tell us how it believes yield and quaility of the Saskatchewan wheat crop will be in 2024 and, based on its current knowledge, it should offer us a reasonable answer. But that’s not the type of AI the agricultural sector needs to concern itself with. Instead, we must concern ourselves with generative artificial intelligence, aka Gen AI or generative AI. This is the technology where a computer program is fed as much information as possible about a local area—say, the farm of one of your customers. From all that data, the generative AI software provides the farmer with the best option to proceed. It’s not predicting anything; instead, it’s using the available data to provide feedback on how best to proceed in the near term. A few companies out there use Gen AI digital crop advisors using agronomic data to turn it into an actionable recommendation for the farmer. Analyzing big agronomic data provides AI-supported insights to optimize production practices. It helps farmers understand patterns affecting the performance of crop varieties and production on their specific farms. It tracks climate trends to help farmers become more resilient to the changing daily climate. We discussed AI with Pearson plc, a company whose workforce solutions help ag businesses unAI & Ag A viewpoint on how artificial intelligence can positively impact the agricultural sector. By Andrew Joseph, Editor Technology isn’t here to take over the world, but rather to help farmers make better choices to achieve their economical goals. wildpixel/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
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