Forgive the scattered nature of this week's Actuator. No big, overarching monologs this week -- just a handful of things I've been thinking about lately that I'd like to get down on paper. I suppose that's one of the perks of doing a weekly newsletter-- it forces you to flesh out some bigger ideas. Point number one is failure. Ingrained in the American psyche (as I'm sure is the case with many other cultures around the world) is an inability to reckon with our mistakes.

While agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere (NYSE:DE) represents a vital cog in U.S. infrastructure, it may also be the most important artificial intelligence (AI) investment right now. Last year, the company introduced an AI-empowered fully-autonomous tractor that can positively disrupt the agricultural industry. Further, Deere offers exposure to practical AI-integrated applications while delivering on its core relevant business. I am bullish on DE stock. During a press conference at the 2022 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show, Deere revealed its autonomous tractor that stood ready for large-scale production.

Due to the growing demand for skilled labor, companies are using remote employees and constructing new facilities. Media reported that Midwest CEOs are contacting Silicon Valley tech employees affected by hiring restrictions and layoffs. Deere & Co. is the world's biggest tractor manufacturer, based in Illinois. After major IT layoffs, companies like Deere & Co. aggressively recruit computer specialists to create autonomous tractors, mining vehicles, and intelligent agriculture technology. Some firms are providing remote work and creating new offices in large cities like Austin and Chicago to entice employees who don't want to migrate to the small Midwestern towns where many enterprises are situated.

Early this week, tractor maker John Deere said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural trade group, promising to make it easier for farmers to access tools and software needed to repair their own equipment. The deal looked like a concession from the agricultural equipment maker, a major target of the right-to-repair movement, which campaigns for better access to documents and tools needed for people to repair their own gear. But right-to-repair advocates say that despite some good points, the agreement changes little, and farmers still face unfair barriers to maintaining equipment they own. Kevin O'Reilly, a director of the right-to-repair campaign run by the US Public Interest Research Group, a grassroots lobbying organization, says the timing of Deere's deal suggests the company may be trying to quash recent interest in right-to-repair laws from state legislators. In the past two years, corn belt states including Nebraska and Missouri, and also Montana, have considered giving farmers a legal right to tools needed to repair their own equipment. But no laws have been passed.

A John Deere autonomous tractor is on display at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A John Deere autonomous tractor is on display at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like many parts of modern life, tractors have gone high-tech, often running on advanced computer systems. But some manufacturers are tight-lipped about how these electronics work, making it difficult or nearly impossible for farmers and independent repair shops to diagnose and fix problems with the equipment. An agreement by John Deere may finally give farmers a greater hand in repairing the company's products.

As the global population soars past 8 billion people, the world faces a conundrum: There are more of us to feed, but our food needs to be grown on the same amount of land, if not less. At CES 2023, John Deere is pushing for a future in which farming relies ever more on sensors and machine learning technologies to meet those needs. When you add in the realities of a changing climate that is shifting growing seasons and making weather patterns less predictable, it's clear that the farm of the future will require radical change. John Deere's latest foray into high-tech agriculture is a sensor-driving robotic technology called ExactShot that's designed to reduce fertilizer use by as much as 60%, saving farmers money and slashing the amount of excess chemicals that go into the ground. John Deere is bringing more robots into the farm field with new technology that can precisely fertilize individual seeds. Instead of shooting a steady stream of fertilizer into the soil over the seeds as they're planted in rows by machinery, the company's ExactShot technology uses sensors and robotics to send out timed bursts of fertilizer that coat individual seeds, leaving the spaces between them fertilizer-free.

As we look back at 2022, it's clear that the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has made some very important strides. From breakthroughs in natural language processing and computer vision to improved adoption of AI by businesses, we've seen several milestones. It's no doubt that AI will continue its explosive growth into 2023. However, given the rapid pace of change, it's important to separate meaningful advancements from distracting fads. To understand the top AI trends, I asked industry leaders and academic experts five questions. It's the age of human-machine collaboration, so what better way to demonstrate this than by asking AI software about the 2023 AI trends it's excited about?

Can John Deere become one of the leading AI and robotics companies in the world alongside Tesla and Silicon Valley technology giants over the next decade? That notion may seem incongruous with the general perception of the 185-year-old company as a heavy-metal manufacturer of tractors, bulldozers and lawnmowers painted in the signature green and yellow colors. But that is what the company sees in its future, according to Jorge Heraud, vice president of automation and autonomy for Moline, Illinois-based Deere, a glimpse of which was showcased at last January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Deere unveiled its fully autonomous 8R farm tractor, driven by artificial intelligence rather than a farmer behind the wheel. The autonomous 8R is the culmination of Deere's nearly two decades of strategic planning and investment in automation, data analytics, GPS guidance, internet-of-things connectivity and software engineering. While a good deal of that R&D has been homegrown, the company also has been on a spree of acquisitions and partnerships with agtech startups, harvesting know-how as well as talent.

John Deere is announcing the acquisition of a state-of-the-art algorithm package from artificial intelligence startup Light. For those of you wondering when driverless vehicles will truly begin to make their mark on society, the answer is: today. Up front: No, you won't be seeing green tractors rolling themselves down city streets anytime soon. But the timeline for fully autonomous farming is being massively accelerated. Today's purchase is all about John Deere's need for speed -- and accuracy, but first let's talk about rapid development.

LAS VEGAS – CES 2022 lacked its usual crowds and some of its headline acts, but the gadget show that returned to this city after the pandemic forced it to go online-only last year retained a certain exuberant weirdness. You can count on the technology industry to supply more possibilities than the market will necessarily demand. And you can expect many of those to surface at the Arlington, Virginia-based Consumer Technology Association's annual gathering, even if they never make it to any store. The big-name vendors that scrapped plans to exhibit in person over fear of the aggressively-spreading omicron variant still had paid-up show-floor space. That led to such minimalist workarounds as LG's "Life's Good Lounge," an expanse of plywood adorned with QR codes for attendees to scan to get more information about products they could not see or touch.