by Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Express Ames, IA -- As machine learning and artificial intelligence programs have advanced over the past decade, Iowa State University researchers -- alongside national and international colleagues -- have likewise expanded efforts to use those tools in aiding farmers with finding solutions to their pest problems and in teaching the next generation how to go even further. Pest-ID, an AI-driven tool for use in identifying insects and weeds and managing their presence, is the result of more than 10 years of work from ISU and other academics. The team is currently working to grow its basis of knowledge in these areas and branch it out to plant diseases as well, a lift that will take even more data and access to computing power. Arti Singh, leader of the project developing Pest-ID, and Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, director of the ISU AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture, said this work is being done with the goal of giving farmers more access to the ...