Artificial intelligence is finding its way to more farms and ranches.
One ag analyst says it has the potential to do great things, but warns there is a flip side to that success.
“I talk about spot sprayers using lasers instead of chemicals. Talk about cell phone apps where you can go to the cattle sale and point your phone right at the cattle, and it’ll tell you the weight of the cattle. So, there are all kinds of new AI technology available. That’s not what I’m concerned about. I think that’s awesome. What I’m concerned about is as we go in and say, tell me about ‘x,’ and we use AI, and it gives us an answer. What I have found is AI is more inaccurate. It is more biased, rather than being accurate and unbiased,” said Doug Johnson.
Johnson says it is also important to be careful of your expectations, especially as AI integrates with agriculture.
“What I’m talking about here is we have to be careful on what we expect out of it. Right now, if you go and do AI for just searching information, it’ll give you answers, but what I’m finding is the answers are not as accurate right now. It’s in the early learning stage, and my concern in our society is, are we diligently fact-checking the answers that we receive from this AI tool? Now, in agriculture, if you look at AI and the technology, there’s a whole new world out here that could enhance development.”
A majority of ag leaders are on board with artificial intelligence. Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall said last year that as integration grows, so does the need for thoughtful policy on governing it.
