Abstract
This paper presents an exploration of public discourse surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture, specifically related to precision agriculture techniques. (1) Advancements in the use of AI have increased its implementation in the agricultural sector, often framed as a sustainable solution for feeding a growing global population. However, lessons learned from previous agricultural innovations indicate that new technologies may face public scrutiny and suspicion, limiting the dissemination of the innovation. Using systems thinking approaches can help to improve the development and dissemination of agricultural innovations and limit the unintended consequences of innovations within society. (2) To analyze the current discourse surrounding AI in agriculture, a content analysis was conducted on Twitter using Meltwater to select tweets with specific reach and engagement. (3) Seven themes resulted from the analysis: precision agriculture and digital technology innovation; transformation and the future of agriculture; accelerate solutions, solve challenges; data management and accessibility; transforming crop management, prioritizing adoption; and AI and sustainability. (4) The discourse on AI in agriculture on Twitter was overwhelmingly positive, failing to account for the potential drawbacks or limits of the innovation. This paper examines the limits of the current communication and outreach across environmental, economic, social, cultural, political, and behavioral contexts.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Meltwater depicted a majority of positive tweets with a subset of negative sentiment tweets in the total analytics for latter half of 2020, the data set analyzed through the discourse analysis only analyzed tweets with the largest reach; the results indicate that, while there were negative sentiment tweets on the social media platform, those with the highest reach and engagement had a positive sentiment, which drives the public discourse on Twitter
The general discourse within precision agriculture, and the artificial intelligence (AI) conversation is operating under a pro-innovation bias [24], supported by the findings presented in the current study
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The global agricultural sector faces major challenges, such as a rapid, growing global population, climate change, resource depletion, soil degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss [1,2]. There are increasing calls for sustainable agricultural intensification to increase productivity [1], minimize environmental impacts, and provide social benefits [3]. Finding solutions that are economically, politically, environmentally, socially, and culturally sustainable is a seemingly insurmountable challenge; yet, digital technologies are often positioned as the transformational solution for solving global agricultural challenges [4]
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