How to avoid being hustled by AI slop

Al McGuire was a mediocre player who quickly bounced out of the National Basketball Association. During his time there, however, McGuire found a way to make up for his lack of talent.

“I can stop Bob Cousy anytime I want to,” gloated McGuire, who fortunately achieved greater success as a college basketball coach and as a beloved sportscaster. “Next time we play, I’ll hold him without a field goal.”

In the 1950s and 1960s, Cousy was akin to Steph Curry, the shooting ace of today’s Golden State Warriors. So, fans readily snapped up tickets the next time McGuire’s New York Knicks played Cousy’s Boston Celtics.

True to his word, McGuire shut down Cousy without a field goal. He simply fouled the Celtic guard every time Cousy crossed the center line.

It was a delightful little hustle, amusing basketball fans who saw McGuire back his boast.

Unfortunately, today’s hustlers aren’t as fun. This summer, Liz Stahl received an email regarding a YouTube video that made sensational claims about University of Minnesota agricultural research. Stahl, a U of M Extension crops educator, was skeptical.

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“The alleged research sounded pretty incredible, and it didn’t seem like something I could see us — or anyone else — realistically doing,” she said.

Stahl checked with the colleague cited in the video, and sure enough, the scientist confirmed that U of M had never done such a study.

“Someone or something made a video using fabricated information while claiming we were the source of the information,” Stahl said.

What it was, a U of M communications specialist confirmed to Stahl, was an online hustler using “artificial intelligence slop.”

These days, this isn’t the only slop that AI is peddling. The web is rife with deepfake videos spurred by AI that are seemingly real but portray events that never happened.

Conversely, AI is a tool that enables businesses to increase efficiency and serve customers better. Kinze Manufacturing used AI to develop its Parts IQ software to quickly allow farmers to access the right parts they need for Kinze machinery, Kinze President Susanne Veatch said at a company media day in June.

“I’m still a little skeptical about it, but I think it can help with some things,” said Wes Everman, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach weeds specialist.

He noted that it currently takes about $350 million and eight to 10 years for an herbicide to churn through the regulatory process before it is registered for sale. An herbicide typically receives 20 years of patent protection from the date of application before generic forms can emerge. The regulatory process currently consumes much of that patent protection time.

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“That’s why [companies] need to have a home run, the next Roundup, to make the math work,” Everman said. “They need a product that works on nearly every weed in every crop. Those are really hard to find.”

If AI can shorten the product registration time, chemical companies will have more time to recoup their investments.

“We might get more active ingredients on the market that way,” Everman added. “Right now, the biggest issue is getting herbicides through the regulatory process.”

Unfortunately, AI is currently spurring polar opposites — legitimate tools that boost business efficiency, as well as the rise of misinformation and nonsense.

Stahl advises farmers and others to obtain information straight from the source whenever possible. Good examples include land-grant and Extension scientists who generate unbiased research.

Many legitimate agricultural companies also provide valuable information. Journalists for my company, Farm Progress, fall into this camp. We vet our articles and stand behind them with our bylines. In the end, it’s up to us to separate the superb from the slop.

Related:Hybrid corn, biofuels, now AI: How tech shapes farming

After all, today’s online hustlers don’t face the consequence of quickly fouling out of the game, as McGuire did.