Event weighs effect of data-powered intelligence

Andrew McAfee, best-selling author and co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Initiative on the Digital Economy, said developments in data, algorithms, networks, cloud, and digital hardware have unleashed a wave of innovation that is "rewriting the business playbook" at the Intel Shift 2017 event in New York on Tuesday. Paul Welitzkin/China Daily

"No industry is untouched by disruption today. No one wants to be in the next industry to get Ubered or Airbnbed," Lisa Spelman, vice-president and general manager at Intel Corp, said as she opened the company's Shift 2017 event in New York City Tuesday.

Spelman was referring to Uber, and Airbnb, which revolutionized the taxi and lodging industries respectively. Intel, best known for processors that are basically the "brains" of computers from Apple, Lenovo and others, held the meeting to demonstrate how business will need to adjust to the digital era which is driving business transformation across all industries.

Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), best-selling author and co-founder of MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy, said major developments in data, algorithms, networks, cloud, and digital hardware have unleashed a wave of innovation that is "rewriting the business playbook" in his keynote address.

Not even agriculture, which has basically existed since man began roaming the Earth thousands of years ago, is immune to this wave of change.

Kraig Schulz is the president and CEO of Autonomous Tractor Corp (ATC) in Minnesota. ATC has developed an after-market electric drive-train system that can be installed on a variety of agricultural vehicles such as tractors and sprayers that enable more efficient field work with less labor.

Schulz said that most tractors now come with auto steer technology that has been around for over 20 years. "Farmers don't steer tractors any more. The challenge we help them solve is to make sure that what the tractor is doing in the field is what the farmer wants," he said.

For example Schulz said his equipment helps sprayers to spray the right amount of material at the right time in the area that the farmer wants sprayed.

Bruce Tiffany is a farmer from Redwood Falls, Minnesota, who farms 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans. He reflected on tillage work that has to be completed after he harvests his corn and soybeans.

"It would be ideal if I had an autonomous tractor that was able to do this tillage work following me around the field as I harvest the corn. It would allow me to complete two tasks at one time," said Tiffany.

Another area where the autonomy would help is in analyzing data. Tiffany said farmers create a ton of data and the "hard part is analyzing and making sound decisions with the data."

Schulz's company has about 12 employees and just started selling its products and services this year. "We have had interest from Asia, Australia and eastern Europe," he said. "We are a partnership-driven company and now we have a partner in India."

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com