A CSANR team is developing an asynchronous online training course focused on understanding and communicating artificial intelligence (AI) within sustainable agriculture. Funded through a grant from Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, the project, titled “Creating an Online Toolbox for Understanding and Communicating Artificial Intelligence within Sustainable Agriculture,” aims to go live in 2025. The course will equip ag-professionals with the knowledge, skills, and efficacy necessary to facilitate engagement around AI issues.
Why AI?
AI is ubiquitous, underpinning many everyday technologies such as news and social media platforms, smart devices, and virtual assistants. The risks and ethics of AI deployment are the subject of global deliberation, with national and international regulatory bodies scrambling to ensure the safe and equitable deployment of AI systems. The use of AI across all industries is on the rise, leading some to coin the phrase “The 4th Industrial Revolution” to describe the significant and far-reaching impacts of AI on the nature and availability of human work.
In agriculture, AI promises to streamline workflows and logistics, automate undesirable and unsafe tasks, enhance precision agriculture, and support decision-making under increasingly unpredictable climate conditions. However, AI can also threaten agricultural sustainability in several ways, from destabilizing the workforce to contributing to overproduction and increased carbon emissions due to the heavy energy costs of training and maintaining AI models. Ag-educators, extension professionals, crop consultants, and other outreach professionals will be instrumental in navigating these impacts and may increasingly be called upon to engage with AI-related issues that concern their audiences. A broad understanding of both communication and AI in society may equip ag-professionals with the tools they need to best serve the public in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
The Training
CSANR researcher and educator Alex Kirkpatrick is leading a team in developing the 10-module series of training videos and self-guided activities. Participants will have the opportunity to gain a deeper awareness of AI in society and sustainable agriculture, develop knowledge of behavioral models predicting technology adoption, obtain skills in utilizing communication theory to meet engagement goals, and enhance their confidence in addressing AI-related issues in agriculture. The team is currently conducting and analyzing a series of interviews with ag-professionals to determine their current and future needs related to understanding AI and the future of agriculture.
You can email alex.kirkpatrick@wsu.edu for more information on the development and deployment of the toolbox. Stay tuned to the CSANR blog for updates as the project develops.
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