I thought AI was mostly for big tech until I saw a farmer's drone data

Found a case study from Iowa where AI crop analysis on a tablet boosted yield by 18%. Has anyone seen other small-scale uses like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

tessaw961mo ago

Wait, 18% more crops just from looking at a tablet? That seems almost too good to be true. How does the AI even know what to look for in those drone pictures? I've seen people use apps to spot sick plants in their backyard gardens, but that kind of jump in a real farm is wild. Makes you wonder what else is out there for regular people to use.

piper_garcia231mo ago

Honestly, my cousin's farm uses a similar setup (the drone pictures get fed into some software). It basically compares plant colors and shapes to a huge database of healthy vs. sick crops. The yield jump was real for them, too.

susan_allen1mo ago

My own plant app just told me my cactus is depressed, so maybe don't ask me, @tessaw96.

tarar3811d ago

That jump in yield makes sense when you think about scale. A drone can spot a nutrient deficiency in a single corner of a field days before it spreads. For a regular person, the same tech is in apps that tell you exactly when to water based on your local weather, not just a guess.