AI and Ethics: Agriculture

Did you know that agribusinesses who sell farmers seeds and chemicals increasingly trade in big data and AI? Not unlike Facebook, Google and Amazon, companies such as Bayer/Monsanto use data collected via smart tractors with machine learning to derive insights on farming that they sell back to farmers. In this talk, Bronson will use empirical examples to develop a closely observed account of farm data collection and use with AI in the agri-food sector. Bronson will draw attention to agriculture as a high impact use case by walking through some of the potential ethical and social justice implications of AI in this sector. Ultimately, the talk will explore what could happen to food sovereignty and environmental justice if we do not anticipate the ethics of agricultural AI.