Your Food is Being Taken Over by Robots. Bayer is Your Farmer Now.
Farmers and agronomists are leveraging AI to level up yields to create more food.
As all good stories start, “I was listening to a podcast on my way to work”. I was, though. I was listening to Business Wars, a podcast dedicated to companies duking it out in the public eye, like Pepsi v Coke or OpenAI v Gemini. That podcast had a commercial for another, like they always do the tricky bastards, called Tools & Weapons. The commercial was about Bayer using AI to manage crops and help farmers better manage their crops.
I spent over 10 hours in my car traveling across Ohio this week. I’m a traveling salesman for the Electric Utility industry. I subscribed to both podcasts and started listening.
Starting with Business Wars, I learned about the drama surrounding Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI. The board, led by Ilya Sutskever, ousted Sam as CEO because they felt he was moving towards AGI, which was not benefitting all of humanity. Ilya felt that moving toward the integrations in Microsoft products of ChatGPT chatbot was moving too fast and against what OpenAI was designed to be.
It was an eye-opening podcast for me because I didn’t know the whole story. I knew that Sam was fired and then hired by the company that purchased the company he was fired from. That is all I knew. I didn’t understand the circumstances or that there was a board involved. I really like the lead researcher Julia Black. She focuses in on the businesses and people shaping our culture today.
During the car ride, I am 40oz of coffee deep and ready for more ai talk. Bring on the following podcast, Tools and Weapons!
Bayer is the focus. They are using data to help farmers answer questions about agronomy (I had to look it up, too) and Bayer Farming products. The podcast never calls out the name of the AI tool. It is called Climate Fieldview with Dekalb.
Farmers get information about their fields to increase yield and decrease waste. Farming, just like their parents did, is a thing of the past using a tool like Climate Fieldview.
I found this video depicting a year in the life of a farmer.
After listening to the podcasts about Sam Altman and Bayer using AI to create a better world for all of humanity, I believe we are on the right track. The data is helping feed people by increasing yields for farmers. The data is helping farmers make more money to sustain their farms, so they don’t have to sell them to a developer who is going to put houses on the land. The data is helping, not hurting.
I believe that AI will be our saving grace as it relates to hunger and poverty. We will know where to deploy resources better and get lean with our operations. Could AI take over the world by getting smarter while consuming all human data? Yes. I don’t think that is what happens, though.
We will live in tandem with Ai like we have been for the last 60 years, thriving like we always do. Humanity for the win!
If you have been reading “The Ripple” ai3 bot saga, you already know how bullish I am on Ai and farming. Here is some more of that story you’ve come to love!
See ya next Sunday!
Ai3 Bot Saga … Continued
Chapter 7 At the Farm
Jules & Milo
Once Roci left, we were able to get out of the barns. Bigtime likes to have the inspections alone with Roci. It’s not like we aren’t allowed to know about ROci, but Bigtime prefers we stay in the barns while they talk. I’m getting better at understanding their language, but I still have some difficulty when they get animated. I do know that something happened again from the NFE. The crops are getting big and fast, making me wonder what we are eating. Is it really as safe as they say it is? Ever since the colonial laws were eradicated and ai3 law came to be our laws our lives seemingly improved. The water became cleaner, the crops grew lusciously, and our crimes became non-existent. Without struggle, we humans tend to make our struggles to overcome. I’ve been on this farm my whole 15 years on this planet. Me and my brother Milo are the only humans left on the farm.
“Jules! Hey Jules?!”
“Hey - Over here”
“Should have known you’d be over here doing your stretches”
“Yeah, I have one hell of a run later today that I need to get ready for”
“How far are you going today?”
“I’m thinking I need to get 10 miles in today to meet my weekly goal of 30, let me check my stats”
“That new gear you got from Bigtime is really coming in handy”
“No kidding. Solar-powered and centrifugal recharging all in a contact lens. With just a quick thought about my stats, I can get them to pull up and scroll through what I need. The synaptic response is insane. Sometimes, it's a little sensitive for my liking, but it’s supposed to get an update later this month. I let Bigtime know it's a little hair-triggered, Jules, that’s, and he let the NFE Sports division know about it. They’re responsive.”
“Well Jules, thats probably because you’re their best runner on the squad!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you going to tag along today?
“Are you doing a loop or out and back?”
“Prolly a couple local loops if you come; otherwise, I’m gonna do an out and back.”
“Sure, let me get the rounds done on the calibrations to make sure the automatics stay up and running through the day tomorrow and I should be good around 1”
“Perfect, see you then, Milo. Let’s meet up end of the drive. Make sure you bring the Nugen night light too. The new one that communicates to traffic signals.”
“Word-I’m in”