Elon Musk praises Microsoft’s AI tools for Indian farmers

Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk praised the use of artificial intelligence (AI) when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showcased how the company’s AI was being used to help farmers in India increase their land yield and become more sustainable.

“AI will improve everything,” Musk posted on February 24 on X, when re-sharing the video posted by Nadella.

The video summarised how farmers were working with the Agricultural Development Trust (ADT) of Baramati and using Microsoft AI technology to analyse a range of crop growing conditions to produce better harvests. Farmers were able to get answers to questions in their own language, as well as draw more AI-driven insights from their weather, soil and agricultural data.

“A fantastic example of AI’s impact on agriculture,” posted the Microsoft CEO.

In a website post from January, Microsoft explained how the Agripilot.ai app was customised for ADT Baramati by Microsoft partner Click2Cloud.  

“Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service turns technical details into simple daily actions for the farmer – fertilize in areas pinpointed by satellite data, for example, or scout for pests, all delivered through a mobile app in English, Hindi and the local Marathi languages. It also creates a crop lifecycle plan for farmers in simple language, so they know exactly what to do next, taking the guesswork out of farming,” stated Microsoft in its blog.