Illinois Grainger College of Engineering Siebel School of Computing and Data Science professor Vikram Adve was invited to speak before the members of the US House Committee on Agriculture. On Wednesday, September 18, he participated in a roundtable discussion of AI in agriculture. The panel was organized by the staff of committee chair Glenn "GT" Thompson. Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski, who represents Illinois' 13th Congressional District where the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is located, was on hand. Adve described the meeting as "an open, informal discussion on AI in Agriculture."
Adve leads the AIFARMS Institute , one of the national artificial intelligence (AI) research institutes launched under the aegis of the US National AI R&D Strategic Plan: 2019 Update and funded primarily by USDA NIFA, Adve is a co-founder of the Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA.) Illinois is one of seven public institutions contributing to AIFARMS.
His presentation gave committee members an overview of the $100M investment in five National AI Institutes for Agriculture from USDA NIFA, of which AIFARMS is one. "The AI Institutes are laying the groundwork for AI to increase farm productivity, rural prosperity, and to enhance US competitiveness in agricultural technologies," he said. Adve noted, "The funding has also attracted a large cohort of AI faculty to collaborate with agricultural researchers on Ag problems. Many of these AI faculty have never worked on agriculture before. Sustaining their interest is going to require sustained funding for the long term."
Adve cited AIFARMS research on computer vision, robotics, generative AI, and machine learning for sensor data, showing examples of how the technologies are implemented. AI technologies, he said, have the potential to reduce labor challenges, greatly speed up seed breeding to develop better seed hybrids, reduce input requirements, including water and chemicals, improving efficiency and reducing waste.
Vikram concluded "I believe that we are still early in the first inning of this ball game – figuring out how to use AI in Agriculture. Even if AI stops advancing at all, I believe we will need ten years or more just to develop and deploy agricultural solutions that make full use of today’s AI capabilities. And of course, the world of AI is not standing still; many other disciplines and also national competitors are investing heavily in figuring out ways to use AI to improve efficiency, prosperity, and public welfare. US agriculture needs our support and investment to do the same."
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