Low commodity prices, a bird flu outbreak, farm bill uncertainty, fears of tariff backlash, and the list goes on. Needless to say, American farmers have a lot on their minds.
With all the trees in the forest seemingly falling all at once, it is little wonder why the tree that fell on Jan. 27, barely raised an eyebrow for those farming the back 40. Meanwhile, that same “tree” fell extremely hard smack dab in the middle of Wall Street as the technology stock Nvidia lost over $560 billion dollars of market cap in a single day. It was the greatest daily loss of value to one company in the history of the U.S. stock market.
Why should those of us in U.S. agriculture be concerned about the stock price and fate of the company that made its billions by making graphic “chips” for gaming consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation? That would be because Nvidia’s popular technology and hardware have become the global poster child for today’s artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
DeepSeek Enters The Chat
Up until Jan. 27, conventional wisdom was that to really do AI right it takes a lot of hardware, a lot of power and most importantly a lot of money. Then came along a Chinese AI start-up company named DeepSeek that put out a press release that seemingly blows such conventional wisdom surrounding AI out of the water. The company claims that it was able to provide the same AI tools as the world’s premier conversational AI platform known as OpenAI ChatGPT, yet do it with less hardware, less power and cheaper. And not just a little cheaper, I’m talking low prices that would put Walmart to shame.
The company said it developed its AI model for less than $6 million using less advanced chips and was completed in months versus the years and billions of dollars that it has taken previous existing AI models such as ChatGPT to do the same. Please keep in mind, this is a Chinese-run company. They are
the world’s best at producing self-serving propaganda. So take their facts and figures with a grain of salt. However, when somebody says they can do the same thing you’re doing 27 times cheaper, it’s going to catch somebody’s attention.
Next-Gen Space Race
Well, it did. It obviously caught the attention of those on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and even the man in the Oval Office. President Donald Trump said DeepSeek should be a wake-up call for America’s AI industry. Some techies and pundits compared it to when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into orbit around the earth in 1957. Such news caught the U.S. and other western nations flat-footed and fostered the perception that the Soviet’s technology was superior to that of the U.S.
Such public fear and anxiety lit the fuse for the ensuing Space Race that culminated with the U.S. putting the first man on the moon in July of 1969. Could DeepSeek have been our nation’s 21st century Sputnik moment? Ultimately, the pages of history will reveal that answer. Right now, we need to ask ourselves whether or not we want the world’s dominant AI technology built by a country where innovation and freedom are symbiotic or in a country where only one of those two values holds meaning.
Whether the majority of our country is aware of it or not, the U.S. and the rest of the world are in a technological arms race, the likes of which has never seen outside a period of wartime. AI will likely touch every nook and cranny of our society and the industries that serve it. Agriculture is certainly one of those vital industries ripe for transformation.
Even though agriculture is one of the most complex industries, it is that very dynamic that makes AI perfect for solving some of its greatest challenges. Put it to work solving challenges such as addressing labor shortages at ag retail locations that cannot find enough agronomists or qualified applicators. Then, let it tackle problems such as the Ogallala Aquifer water shortage so farms in our nation’s breadbasket remain viable for decades to come. How about giving AI a shot at mitigating disease outbreaks like the bird flu epidemic that has consumers scrambling just to find a carton of eggs?
Infiltrating Technologies
If U.S. agriculture fails to win its leg of this AI relay, it could have the same national security con-sequences as if the U.S. defense industry falls short in their AI mission. A recent report, published by the American Edge Project, states that “China is rapidly advancing its own open-source ecosystem as an alternative to the American technology and using it as a Trojan horse to implant its CCP values into global infrastructure.” The report went on to say, “By making much of its AI technology freely accessible, Beijing aims to ensure its systems and standards become embedded in the world’s financial, manufacturing and communications backbone. Through coordinated action between government and industry, China is working to reshape the global technology landscape while programming CCP values and control mechanisms into critical systems worldwide.”
It’s all starting to make sense. TikTok, DJI drones and DeepSeek are all built to collect data.
All these different types of infiltrating technologies are learning more about us without us having the slightest idea of where all that data is going, and how, if, and when it might be used against us. Isn’t it interesting that as soon as the DeepSeek story hit, its AI Assistant application became the number one downloaded app on the Apple App Store for more than a week?
But here’s the disclaimer and the fine print when it comes to DeepSeek. It works just like its U.S. rivals — until you ask it about a sensitive subject like Tiananmen Square. Here’s a quick history refresh. The 1989 crackdown saw Chinese government troops open fire on student-led pro-democracy sympathizers in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands of deaths. DeepSeek’s chatbot response, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”
Will You Trust It?
Is this the type of company you want to put in charge of your autonomous tractor, selecting your corn seed varieties, running your irrigation systems or making your commodity trades?
Thankfully, it looks like the Trump administration must have gotten the AI wake-up call. No sooner than his second day back in office, Trump announced a private sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund infrastructure for AI. The initial phase of the project will feature a joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle to build data centers, and the ambitious project has been given the name Stargate. Based on the players involved in this project, there is no doubt that the financial and health sectors of our economy are going to be getting a lot of attention.
The question is: Where is agriculture in the AI pecking order? Maybe that topic needs to come up as Congress considers the next farm bill. Regardless of what the government does, U.S. agriculture’s private sector needs to embrace AI at warp speed because this is the type of innovation and technology that has kept the U.S. farmer the most productive producer on the planet. At the end of the day, there is nothing more basic and vital to the success of a nation than to be able to ensure the stable and healthy supply of food and resources to its citizens. That is one task that should never be outsourced or compromised. So, to all those in the back 40, the local coffee shops, co-ops, machinery dealers and all those part of making American agriculture the most productive in the world — let’s run this race, and let’s make sure its not even close!
