How can AI help women and men in the field of agriculture? Caroline Mbaya and Winston Ojenge from the African Center for Technology Studies (ACTS) in Kenya highlight the critical importance of rethinking the adequacy of technological tools developed for the farming industry and the diverse communities/users. For instance, linguistic diversity must be taken into consideration to avoid social exclusion or access to substantial information. Evidence-based research on the challenges that hinder the full participation of women and youth must be taken into account when developing AI solutions.

This conversation raises an important question: how well do AI developers/ entrepreneurs know about women and youth’s challenges pertaining to unpaid labor and care work? Caroline and Winston argue that there must be no double standards when developing farming solutions or when gathering the necessary data since remote or second-hand data collection can often not be fully reliable.