BENGALURU– In a significant move to bolster India’s agricultural sector and improve AI’s sensitivity to the country’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity, Google on Thursday announced the launch of a new Agricultural Monitoring and Event Detection (AMED) API.
The AMED API is designed to provide detailed insights on crops and field activity across India, including the type of crop on individual fields, field sizes, sowing and harvesting dates, and historical agricultural data from the past three years. The aim is to enable ecosystem partners to develop tailored solutions that enhance agricultural productivity and resilience.
“With AI research — and especially with AMED building on the foundation of ALU — we’re working on accelerating crucial shifts, transforming broad insights into granular, real-time data,” said Alok Talekar, Agriculture and Sustainability Research Lead at Google DeepMind. “These impactful solutions are intended not only to benefit India’s farmers, but also to help the country combat rising climate risks.”
As part of its broader efforts, Google also announced a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur to develop localized datasets that reflect India’s diverse cultural landscape. This collaboration is a key component of Google’s Amplify Initiative, which aims to bridge knowledge gaps in Large Language Models (LLMs) by incorporating underrepresented languages, dialects, and cultural nuances.
“At Google, along with charting new frontiers in foundational AI — the backbone of many of our launches in the Gemini era — we continue to advance fundamental research to address humanity’s most pressing challenges,” said Dr. Manish Gupta, Senior Director for India and APAC at Google DeepMind.
Dr. Mainack Mandal, Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur, added, “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Google on the Amplify Initiative and open a new chapter in global AI development.”
By combining agricultural intelligence with culturally aware AI, Google aims to make its technology more relevant and impactful for Indian users — from farmers on the ground to developers creating next-gen applications. (Source: IANS)
