Making AI Headlines · Page 3
Weeds Receive a $53 Million Invitation to Meet Silicon Valley
· New York time
An MIT-led team has received funding of up to $53 million from ARPA-H to develop alternatives to modern weed killers using AI. The project aims to generate safer herbicides, reduce dependence on imports and strengthen the security of the US food supply. Those goals connect an AI research program to a practical agricultural problem. Farmers need ways to control weeds, but a new candidate must be evaluated for safety and usefulness, not merely generated by a computer. The distance between a promising molecular idea and something appropriate for a field is where substantial research remains. The funding also reflects interest in supply chains. Reducing dependence on imported inputs could matter when access to essential farm products is disrupted. AI is being enlisted as a research tool for that broader challenge, rather than replacing the agricultural system it is meant to serve. The award is for development, and its stated amount is a maximum. It does not mean a new herbicide is already available or that the project's goals have been achieved. The researchers are beginning work on a problem whose eventual answers must make sense for crops, land and the people who manage them. The field offers a less accommodating audience than a product demonstration. Weeds will not be impressed by a smooth presentation, and they have never agreed to judge a tool by its launch announcement.
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