AI in Charge: Shaping Policy Making and Agrifood Systems Governance—A Vision, Exodus, or an Opportunity?

On 14 May, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) hosted a thought-provoking webinar exploring the potential role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in shaping the future of agrifood systems governance. For this event, titled “‘AI in Charge’ of policy making and agrifood systems governance: Utopia, Exodus, or an Opportunity?”, FAO has partnered with Harvard's HUPFI programme to mentor a team tackling AI in agrifood systems and its associated policy and governance challenges.

The webinar highlighted the growing importance of AI in the agricultural domain, with the European Partnership "Agriculture of Data" aiming to effectively deploy data technologies such as AI to address challenges in the sector. However, the partnership also acknowledges the need to guide short-, medium, and long-term strategies for the development and consolidation of new data analysis technologies, while considering the social and ethical impact of AI integration in agriculture.

As the international community works towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the webinar emphasized the crucial role of AI in transforming food and agriculture for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda calls for bold, transformational change to create a more inclusive, fair, sustainable, and resilient world, free of hunger and extreme poverty.

The webinar provided a platform to share insights on the potential of AI in agrifood systems governance, exploring the opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations. Participants discussed the role of AI in policy dialogue, evidence-based decision-making, and the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices.

Whether AI will lead to a utopian future, an exodus from traditional governance structures, or an opportunity for transformative change remains to be seen, but the discussion underscored the need for a thoughtful and responsible approach to AI integration in the agricultural sector.

Please watch the recording of the webinar here. This webinar is part of the 'Policy frontiers, fuelling agrifood innovation agenda' series, you can find all the webinars of the series here.