Artificial intelligence offering a brave new world of how you'll farm, and eat

It used to be that artificial intelligence was limited to the realms of science fiction and movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator's Skynet. Today, artificial intelligence is real -- think Alexa or Google Home -- and tools and applications putting it to use are emerging at a rapid clip in many fields, including agriculture and food. Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for machine learning but its concepts are used in related fields, including robotics and natural language processing. It certainly figured prominently at this year's Global Food Innovation Summit in Italy, which I was able to attend with the support of a bursary from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation professional development fund. "It will take resources to tackle problems we face like climate change, food security and hunger," said Zachary Fritze, CEO and co-founder of ag tech analytics startup Cultovo, during a presentation at the conference.