Meet "Norm," a new AI ag advisor
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
An artificial intelligence agriculture advisor named "Norm" believed to be the first of its kind debuted last week, officials at Farmers Business Network tell Axios.
Why it matters: Norm needs just seconds to provide information like combating specific pests, seed varieties that are best for a field's soil type or identifying and preventing cattle diseases.
How it works: Norm was built using ChatGPT, a free AI chatbot that lets users pose questions about anything. Norm, however, is hyper specialized.
- Feeding its intelligence is agronomic research and other publicly available data linked with things like application rates, product labels, current events and FBN's proprietary data.
Zoom in: Norm gets smarter as people ask detailed questions and it consumes more data.
- Programmers believe it will soon be able to provide real-time planting advice based on weather forecasts, Kit Barron, head of FBN's data teams, tells Axios.
The intrigue: The bot's name pays homage to Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize winning agronomist from Iowa and founder of The World Food Prize.
Of note: You must become an FBN member to consult with Norm.
- Membership is free, as is Norm's service.
🫑 Quick take: Jason consulted Norm about problems raising sweet peppers in his garden.
- Norm believes it is a pollination problem and provided links about how to fix it.
What's next: We'll do a follow up later this summer about whether Norm was right!
