Finding the Fit for AI

From The President

Finding the Fit for AI

By Brent Kemp, AgGateway President and CEO

I had the pleasure of representing AgGateway – and agriculture in general – at the Association of Equipment Manufacturer’s Vision Council meeting last month. The event divided attendees into subgroups that focused on specific topics, and mine centered around Data and Artificial Intelligence. We touched on topics as varied as ethics, future workforce, automation, regulation, and geopolitics.

Not surprisingly, we left with more questions than answers in many cases. But there is consensus that some kind of “AI Readiness Checklist” aligned to small, medium, and large manufacturers is a good short-term deliverable. The experience reiterated to me that associations have a role to play in convening impactful conversations on the topic, and that associations have work to do to prepare for AI in house.

For organizations that have gone down their own data journey, this realization is likely not surprising. AgGateway’s conversations about AI and its impact on standards and the work we do together is reflected further in this newsletter. Ben Craker shares some of the areas where we have been testing and evaluating the results of AI assistance in summarizing work, helping to prepare documentation, and other use cases. We don’t yet have a chatbot on our website, but we are considering ways in which AI might be used to help volunteers better find resources on our website or the wiki and quickly get answers to questions that might otherwise take some digging.

Associations acting as convenors have a duty to ensure that meeting participants are engaged and that contributions are received in accordance with established policy and process. For us, this means that working group participants contribute under our digital resource development process and intellectual property policy. After discussion with AgGateway’s Board of Directors, we will be modifying our existing meeting recording policy.

Specifically, we are formalizing policies to exclude AI note takers from working group meetings in lieu of a registered participant’s presence in such a meeting. This is to encourage individual participation and engagement, and to mitigate the risk of recorded content being distributed beyond the bounds of the working group while active development is taking place. We take seriously the value of the time and intellectual capital participants contribute, and we will do everything we can to ensure that your engagement under our policies is honored. Transcripts and recordings may be initiated by the AgGateway staff member present but sharing and publication of such information may be limited based on the type of meeting or call being held.

AgGateway’s exploration of internal processes that could benefit from AI tools will continue. We welcome your thoughts, experiences, and cautions as we go. What suggestions do you have for us to explore, and how can we better meet your expectations for serving information, developing resources, and enabling implementation in the industry? Drop a line and let me know, or let’s talk at an upcoming in-person meeting.