Furio Oldani
Last month, thanks to the era of electronics and innovation “CES” in Las Vegas, there was a lot of talk about artificial intelligence, acronym “AI”. Of the possibilities it opens up for social development, but also of the dangers that can arise from its misuse. Macchine Trattori also talked about it, warning against confusing traditional algorithms with real artificial intelligence software.
The future is the optimization of manufacturing work
The boundary line between the two worlds is indeed thin, inherent in the so-called “self-learning”, the ability of AI software to modify their operational responses based on the experiences that gradually accrue when carrying out their functions. Without self-learning there is no artificial intelligence, a technology that is commonly believed to completely revolutionize social habits and customs in the space of a few years, starting a process of work optimization at the manufacturing level that will allow companies both to operate in terms of maximum efficiency and cope with the demographic decline that is affecting the most industrialized countries.
Robotics in agriculture, help with production costs
Two perspectives that will obviously also involve agricultural and livestock enterprises. Thanks to AI, they will be able to minimize production costs in favor of their respective profitability, without prejudice to the fact that artificial intelligence will not be able to increase production where it is already optimized in terms of Agriculture 4.0. Land is land, and even by exploiting the most advanced production solutions it cannot yield much. If today, for example, up to 50 quintals of durum wheat can be obtained from one hectare of land, thanks to AI those quintals will remain the same or will grow by a few percentage points.
AI in agriculture will lead to company reorganizations
A possibility that is unlikely to materialize at the level of specialized production deriving from tall trees. As mentioned, however, manpower needs will decrease as machines and equipment will operate autonomously, a process which will also be supported through profound company reorganisations. The impact of AI on productive discourses would be different if the most advanced technologies were also embraced by developing countries, a process that has already begun, but which advances very slowly and patchily, thanks to the socio-cultural backwardness that characterize farmers in poor countries and at times also those located in underdeveloped areas of rich countries.
AI won’t be enough to fill the food shortage
Therefore, hypothesizing that AI can meet the food demands that will be made by those ten billion people destined to populate the Earth in 2050 is completely utopian, unless the spread of AI is faster than population growth. Even in this case, however, AI will not be able to work miracles as it has to deal with urbanization that will have a negative impact on arable land.
The changes of the future
Therefore, the mentality of those who oppose in the name of the infamous “precautionary principle” the spread of genetically modified crops, those that herald higher yields, and the so-called “cultured meats”, products that could reconcile future food demands with the protection environmental. However, time is a gentleman and certainly after having highlighted the impossibility of banning the atom, glyphosate and internal combustion engines, just to give a few examples, it is certain that the need to accept GMOs and cultured meats as sources of healthy and abundant foods.
Title: AI in agriculture? Help, but it won’t solve the planet’s food shortage
Translation with Google
Author: Furio Oldani
