Part Two: Senators on Using Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture

Welcome back to our miniseries on Artificial Intelligence. Last time we talked about the Senate Ag Committee’s hearing about A.I.

We heard from Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow…

“In this rapidly evolving landscape, it’s imperative we strike a balance between harnessing the benefits A.I. offers, while addressing the concerns it raises.”

Picking up where we left off, Stabenow says as the USDA looks into this technology, American leaders needs to recognize the significant risk it imposes and show caution with implementing it.

“Placing vast amounts of data in the hands of a few private companies could accelerate the trend of consolidation or perpetrate biases that have harmed small farmers. High costs are putting AI and precision agriculture technology out of their reach for everyone except the largest operations. We must work to ensure that its application does not force even more small and medium sized farms out of business by ensuring that there is fair access to the benefits.”

Ranking Member of the committee John Boozman also wants to watch for dangers. He says AI has potential but needs to answer tough questions.

“New regulations may be needed to ensure that consumers are kept safe, especially when it comes to the use of applications that handle sensitive data.”