FBN releases AI-powered ag advisor

The Farmers Business Network (FBN) has announced the launch of Norm, an agronomic advisor powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

The software is built on OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.5 interactive model. Norm is planned to help farmers ask an array of agronomic, farm business, animal health, and product usage questions.

Here are some examples of how Norm is intended to help farmers:

• Chemical intelligence: Norm can help identify generic alternatives, application rates, pest and disease targets, tank mix, and nozzle suggestions.
• Input Guidance: Norm can provide guidance into the best seed varieties based on geographic region, soil type, climate, even real-time market demand, as well as herbicide, pesticide, and fungicide that will be most effective on their fields.
• Pest and disease strategies: Norm can help farmers develop strategies for dealing with common pest and disease issues, and incorporating practice management with specific products.
• General agronomic advice: Norm can provide insight on everything from irrigation to fertilization to crop rotation, providing tailored answers to farmers based on their specific circumstances.
• Livestock and animal health: Norm can help producers understand diseases and pharmaceuticals, especially in beef cattle.

"Farmers have to make hundreds of decisions each season, on topics as diverse as soil chemistry, plant genetics and diseases, chemical applications, equipment repair, and commodity price hedging," says Kit Barron, head of data science at FBN. "It's hard to be an expert in all of those areas. We envision a future where Norm can serve as a first line advisor to our members across dozens of topics. The possibilities are truly limitless when it comes to leveraging AI and Norm to increase farmer profitability and return on investment."

How it works

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot service trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. The chatbot interacts with users in a conversational way to answer questions, admit mistakes, challenge input premises, and reject inappropriate requests, according to OpenAI's website.

The model is trained with reinforcement learning from human feedback, in which a human AI trainer played both sides of the conversation — both human and the AI assistant. This helps the model compose responses in a dialogue format.

FBN's Norm AI service will draw from publicly available data like weather insights, soil monitoring, application rates, product labels, current events, university research, and grower commentary. It will also take insight from FBN's proprietary data.

In the name

The name "Norm" pays homage to Dr. Norman Borlaug, an American agronomist who lived from 1914 to 2009, and is considered the father of what is considered the "green revolution." He won the Nobel Peace prize, and Presidential Medal of Freedom for his agronomic work across the world.

Availability

FBN is inviting members to experiment with Norm to help refine the feedback it provides. The Norm tool is now available for any FBN's current members on the company's website at FBN.com/Norm.