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Hello reader,
Did you know that Viagra was originally invented to treat high blood pressure?
It’s one of my favorite fun facts that the little blue pill wasn’t developed as medicine that could – to put it politely – save marriages but was instead supposed to ease physical problems of a very different kind. It was only the discovery of a hard-to-miss (pun intended) side effect that changed the course of history.
I love the idea that human creativity and innovation are so powerful that we can accidentally solve problems we hadn’t even considered tackling. It’s a testament to our adaptability and our luck as a species,I guess.
Similarly to Viagra, I don’t think generative AI was envisaged to help farmers keep their crops safe from disease and boost yields. But the tech could do just that before long.
Today we look at:
- How genAI could revitalize Indonesian agriculture
- Temu fires a warning shot across Shopee’s bow
- Other newsy highlights such as Shein’s partnership with fashion brand Forever 21 and how to spot red flags on any VC term sheet
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Crop bots
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Farming may not be the first sector you think of when you think of genAI, but Indian agritech firms are breaking new ground with the tech.
The experiments in the subcontinent may just light the way for Indonesia’s agricultural industry, which is struggling to retain its workforce.
- Seeds planted: Agriculture plays an important role in Indonesia’s economy, but young Indonesians are leaving the sector in droves, partly due to low wages. The introduction of technology is helping reverse the tide, and agritech funding in the archipelago grew 2.5x in 2022.
- Indian example: Indonesia’s agriculture market shares similarities with India, where agritech firms are diving into the world of genAI with gusto. Apart from tapping conversational AI products for farming, Indian startups are using genAI for everything from diagnosing plant disease to rebuilding satellite data obstructed by clouds.
- Mixed bag: There is strident debate about just how much good genAI can do for farmers, particularly when questions about the data tools used to train such programs are raised. Some argue that large language models (LLMs) trained on agricultural data can help farmers improve their decision-making. But others say that since farming is a dynamic field with changing variables, LLMs that use historical data can’t provide valuable advice.
Read more: Why genAI for farming in India can be fertile ground for Indonesia’s agritech players
You can run, but you can’t hide from Temu
Tech in Asia Conference 2023
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