Artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics are all powerful new technologies that are not only making changes in agriculture, but are also plowing up new legal issues for attorneys, state governments and producers, presenters said during a national ag tech and law conference. The first-of-its-kind conference, Ag Technology and the Law: Advancing American Agriculture, was held this week at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The conference, which drew representatives from 35 states, was sponsored by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, the National Agricultural Law Center and the National Association of Attorneys General. Rutledge welcomed participants on Wednesday by reinforcing the importance of agriculture. "Meeting with Arkansans face-to-face each year, including more than 400 farmers, I have heard first-hand about issues with feral hogs, dicamba drift, black-headed buzzards, Waters of the U.S. and many other issues," said Rutledge.

Utilities and a host of energy companies are increasingly interacting with new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain and robotics. In our latest #indigoinsights infographic below we explore AI in the energy sector including emerging applications, key solution providers and how AI fits into the broader trend of new energy technologies. In combination with other technologies, AI has the potential to deliver the active management that will be required for the grid of the future. Powerful intelligence will be able to balance grids, manage demand, negotiate actions, enable self-healing and facilitate a host of new products and services. Indeed, AI, will not just lend itself to the energy transition, it will also enable more efficient and effective utility operations by helping to analyze unstructured data which typically makes up to 80 percent of data in an organization.