Choosing Sustainability: Our Decision on AI & Plant Provenance

At Hortikult, we’re excited to share the journey of building Plant Provenance, our upcoming platform dedicated to plant enthusiasts and collectors. As our developers work diligently to bring this vision to life, we’re making mindful decisions about the technologies we incorporate. One significant choice we’ve made is to wait before integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into Plant Provenance.

Exploring AI Possibilities

We considered several AI features that could enhance the user experience, and these are just a few of the potential use cases we’ve come up with:

• Plant identification with image recognition:
  → Users could upload photos to instantly identify plants and access detailed information.
  ↓ Can already be done with other tech.
• Personalized content recommendations:
  → Users could receive suggestions tailored to their interests and collection.
  ↓ There are other ways to tailor content delivery. 
• Educational chatbot for plant knowledge:
  → We could give immediate answers to our users’ plant-related questions through an interactive chatbot.
  ↓ Sure, nice to have, but necessary?
• Community engagement:
  → We could match our members by having an AI look at each member’s location or their most collected genera or species, for example.
  ↓ We can develop smart filters.
• Content moderation assistance:
  → We could use AI to maintain a positive environment with the help of AI-assisted moderation tools.
  ↓ We trust our community and can use other tech to flag certain words, make reporting content easy, and simply stay in touch with our members and engage regularly.

Why We’re Choosing to Wait on AI Integration

These features might facilitate making Plant Provenance a dynamic and engaging platform but we are holding off on implementing AI right now. Why? The answer lies in our commitment to environmental sustainability.

The potential benefits of AI don’t outweigh the environmental costs at this time. AI technologies require substantial computational power, which leads to high energy consumption. Currently, most data centers rely on traditional power sources that contribute massively to carbon emissions. We believe that introducing AI at this stage would not align with our goal of minimizing our environmental impact.

Our Commitment to a Sustainable Future

We’re dedicated to making choices that support the health of our planet. By opting not to implement AI immediately, we’re prioritizing sustainability and staying true to our values. We want Plant Provenance to be a platform that not only serves its community but also respects the environment.

Looking Ahead to Cleaner Energy Solutions

We anticipate a future where data centers are powered by cleaner energy sources, such as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Experts predict that SMRs could become mainstream by the end of the decade, providing a more sustainable way to support energy-intensive technologies like AI. When this shift occurs, we’ll be eager to explore AI integration in a way that aligns with our environmental commitments.

Building Our Community Together

In the meantime, we’re focusing on developing Plant Provenance as a platform that emphasizes human connections and shared knowledge. We’re starting our community through our Facebook group, where we share updates on our progress and invite you to join the conversation. Together, we can cultivate a space that values sustainability, authenticity, and a passion for plants.

Engage with Us Today

While we work on bringing Plant Provenance to life, we invite you to be part of our growing community:

Our Path Forward

We’re excited about what’s ahead and look forward to building a platform that reflects our shared values. By making conscious decisions today, we’re setting the foundation for a sustainable and comitted community tomorrow.