Can AI Feed the World Better than a Farmer? - Data Makes Possible

Highly technical agriculturalists are hoisting their pitchforks, demanding that we embrace their ideas to reshape our unsustainable food system. Whether our reality is a food desert or a farm-to-table paradise, it's time we start paying attention: In order to keep pace with a global population that's expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050, projections show food production would have to increase by 70 percent between 2005/07 and 2050. Researchers at San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company Sentient Technologies are answering the call, working with a major U.S. university to leverage data-powered technologies with the goal of creating ideal food-growing climates in a world disrupted by global warming. Since 2015, the university has been building one such technology: high-tech "food computers." These sensor-packed and actuator-controlled greenhouses were designed to test out growing conditions for various fruits and vegetables.