Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a new concept, but it’s getting more advanced every day. As AI gains popularity, more education is needed to responsibly use the programs in everyday life.

Jessie Wright, a University of New Hampshire Extension field specialist, is a big advocate for using AI. She has led multiple meetings and seminars to teach farmers how to properly use it.

At the recent 2024 New England Vegetable & Fruit Conference, Wright mentioned how we’ve “been interacting with AI tools for decades” but “over time, these tools are getting more and more useful.”

She focused on a relatively new type of AI program called generative AI, which is trained to recognize patterns and has the capabilities of creating something new.

ChatGPT is a well-known generative AI program that is free and relatively easy to use. Wright recommends using ChatGPT to “do something you don’t want to do” or to help you when you’re stuck on a task. This tool is best used for content generation, not for questions with one right answer.

Jessie Wright, a University of New Hampshire Extension field specialist, is a big advocate for farmers using AI. Photo by Kelsi Devolve

Farmers can utilize ChatGPT to generate captions for their social media posts, organize data more efficiently, research the best equipment to buy for their production and more. The more information that you input into ChatGPT, the better the response you are going to receive. Think of ChatGPT as a conversation, not a one-and-done search like Google.

There are some public concerns when it comes to AI technology, but ChatGPT’s “knowledge” is only based on information it’s trained on. The program does not have its own bias – it only copies the bias of the information provided for training.

Wright warned attendees not to provide personal information in their ChatGPT searches, as the systems may remember it.

Generative AI is simply another tool in the toolbox for producers actively engaged in social media. It should not be thought of as an end product. Once it generates something for you, take the time to personalize it as well.

by Kelsi Devolve