Root AI, a Somerville, Mass.-based startup developing the Virgo harvesting robot for indoor farms, was acquired by AppHarvest for $60 million. AppHarvest is investing approximately $10 million in cash and the remaining balance in AppHarvest common shares to acquire Root AI. Founded in 2018, Root AI's 19 full-time employees are expected to join AppHarvest's technology group. Root AI co-founder and CEO Josh Lessing will take on the role of CTO for AppHarvest. He will take the lead in continuing to develop the robots and AI capabilities for the network of indoor farms AppHarvest is building.

In Leones, Argentina, a drone with a special camera flies low over 150 acres of wheat. It's able to check each stalk, one-by-one, spotting the beginnings of a fungal infection that could potentially threaten this year's crop. Many food producers are struggling to manage threats to their crop like disease and pests, made worse by climate change, monocropping, and widespread pesticide use. Catching things early is key. Taranis, a company that works with farms on four continents, flies high-definition cameras above fields to provides "the eyes."

In Leones, Argentina, a drone with a special camera flies low over 150 acres of wheat. It's able to check each stalk, one-by-one, spotting the beginnings of a fungal infection that could potentially threaten this year's crop. The flying robot is powered by computer vision: a kind of artificial intelligence being developed by start-ups around the world, and deployed by farmers looking for solutions that will help them grow food on an increasingly unpredictable planet. Many food producers are struggling to manage threats to their crop like disease and pests, made worse by climate change, monocropping, and widespread pesticide use. Catching things early is key.

In the hills between Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures, surrounded by technology companies and startups, Spread Co. is preparing to open the world's largest automated leaf-vegetable factory. It's the company's second vertical farm and could mark a turning point for vertical farming -- keeping the cost low enough to compete with traditional farms on a large scale. For decades, vertical farms that grow produce indoors without soil in stacked racks have been touted as a solution to rising food demand in the world's expanding cities. The problem has always been reproducing the effect of natural rain, soil and sunshine at a cost that makes the crop competitive with traditional agriculture. Spread is among a handful of commercial firms that claim to have cracked that problem using a mix of robotics, technology and scale.

Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, not to mention a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Sure, Angus is a robot. But don't hold that against him, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed than C-3PO.

Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, not to mention a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Sure, Angus is a robot. But don't hold that against him, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed than C-3PO.

Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, not to mention a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Sure, Angus is a robot, but don't hold that against him, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed than C-3PO. Arobotic arm lifts plants being grown at Iron Ox, a robotic indoor farm, in San Carlos, Calif.

It's All About EmojisEven before the event kicked off, CEO Sundar Pichai assured fixing bugs in things that matter the most, like burger emoji and floating foam on beer mug emoji. Better and smoother updates in AI, Assistant, Photos, News will soon make lives easy for most people. Here's a quick round-up of what Google has in store for your in the coming few days, weeks and months. The AI will convert JPEG to PDF. Google has trained its AI to help all the photography enthusiasts enjoy great features like adding colour to black and white images, making pictures pop by adjusting backdrop, suggesting brighter options for an under-processed picture.

You've probably heard of farm-to-table, or even farm-to-fork, agricultural movements that emphasize the connection between producers and consumers. Spread, a giant factory farm that grows lettuce in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, is just one of more than 200 "plant factories" in Japan capable of harvesting 20,000 heads of lettuce every day. Their lettuce, which includes frilly and pleated varieties, is grown in a totally sterile environment: There's no soil or sunlight, no wind nor rain. The rich, dark-brown soil in which produce has traditionally been grown is utterly alien inside the factory. Instead, the lettuce is grown hydroponically, in a nutrient-rich gelatinous substance.