Five thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia, bronze was forged from tin and copper. Neighboring peoples were greatly alarmed: a weapon of mass destruction had just been invented. With bronze swords and axes, they feared they would be exterminated. And indeed, these weapons caused much harm. But could we live today without knives, screwdrivers, or wrenches? Metallurgy was an industrial revolution that became essential to our civilization.
Today, that revolution is called Artificial Intelligence. AI is not new—many techniques have been in use for decades—but advances in computing power and generative AI have revived fears about its misuse. Nevertheless, AI is becoming indispensable; in fact, it already is.
At the University of Córdoba, we have made two major commitments to applying AI in the agri-food sector. Through the ENIA Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Agriculture, we develop predictive systems and digital twins for tree growth and crop production processes, as well as for tracking the spread of olive fruit fly infestations and downy mildew in vineyards. We estimate calf weight using computer vision—simply by observing them—and detect abnormal animal behavior that may indicate the onset of disease.
In addition, virtual agents based on generative AI can do far more than simply answer questions via a chatbot. They can initiate processes, generate code and documents, and even collaborate with other agents. This gives them tremendous autonomous execution capabilities, which must be carefully defined and supervised by humans. After all, it is probably not yet the time to let them manage our bank accounts on their own.
Our second major initiative is the European project AgrifoodTEF. Through this project, we test, validate, and support the market deployment of agri-food solutions developed by companies using AI, robotics, and autonomous machinery technologies. In just three years, the consortium has delivered hundreds of services to companies, covering a wide range of applications: from autonomous machinery for weed control, to computer vision systems that count pollen grains in honey samples; from detecting chatbot hallucinations and evaluating user experience, to identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities in applications and helping companies address them.
AI will become our personal assistant, taking over countless tasks and making our lives easier. Yet it has only just emerged into the mainstream, it is evolving rapidly, and most people still do not know how to make the most of it. Enjoy this moment—you are fortunate enough to be living through one of those rare periods that change everything.
And what comes next?
Intelligent and autonomous robotics, without a doubt.
Dr. Joaquín Olivares Bueno is a Professor of Computer Architecture at the
University of Córdoba. He leads the Advanced Informatics Research
Group, serves as Principal Investigator of the AgrifoodTEF project, and is
Associate Director of the ENIA Chair in Artificial Intelligence and
Agriculture.