From facial to fungal recognition

摘要

Artificial intelligence (Al) akin to that used in facial-recognition software is accelerating the grape-breeding process by accurately identifying those individual vines that carry favorable genetic characteristics, notably those that provide mildew resistance and higher fruit quality.The robotic camera system developed at Cornell University, called Blackbird, could also help select parent breeding stock resistant to other pathogens and, as a more immediate benefit for growers, could be used to determine optimum fungicide combinations for different geographic localities.