From Laboratories to Lawn Mowers: How Artificial Intelligence is Impacting Some Local Colorado Businesses

Money makes the world go around. It dictates everything from the politicians that make it into office to innovation, and who claims it. This is one reason why artificial intelligence is growing in popularity across businesses of all kinds. In Colorado, as in most of the country, the applications of artificial intelligence vary but most aim to save money in some way.

Public opinion of the phenomenon remains transfixed in a state of polarization; Some people believe that AI is coming for jobs, while others observe it as a part of optimization. We sat down with a Colorado-based researcher and a business owner to learn more about the nuances of artificial intelligence and how it might impact the future.

The Medical Field and Artificial Intelligence
The healthcare field is complex, and constantly under scrutiny for its shortcomings. Diagnosis can be difficult to find, and inclusive research is lacking. According to CU Boulder’s Associate Professor of Computer Science and researcher, Theodora Chaspari, Ph.D., artificial intelligence could create more predictable outcomes while minimizing biases, and making algorithms more trustworthy, which is one way it could transform the medical field.

“AI can potentially provide more precise outcomes, or it can be able to predict outcomes. There has been a study from MIT that showed that AI algorithms were able to predict breast cancer a few years earlier than radiology from X-rays. This can really help people and save lives,” said Chaspari. This could lead to faster diagnosis and data evaluation in the medical field to help manage disease across the country.

While using AI as a prediction tool could lead to better healthcare management, Chaspari notes that some concerns exist within the research field. Leaning in the direction of AI integration into the healthcare field could, “have a positive impact on people’s health outcomes. However, I think we have to approach this technology with caution. There is some risk associated with AI. People over relying on AI as research. We test the technology, but whenever AI technology is being deployed we have to remember that there might be outliers that haven’t been taken into account. There’s a risk of over-reliance on AI technology without thinking about the problem or the parameters of a certain situation.”

Some of Chaspari’s current efforts focus on making AI more reliable. “What we’re trying to do is to make AI safer to use in the medical field. We are trying to, first of all, not leak personally identifiable information which is something that has prevented the adoption of this technology,” she said.

In addition to expanding AI use in hospitals and doctor’s offices, Chaspari hopes to connect the average user to this tool. This is mainly taking place in smart devices that track data usage for the user as well as collect data in larger forms for study.

“Now we are leveraging data that comes from wired devices like smartphones in order to collect data from people’s everyday lives. Much of people’s behaviors that are related to their health happen in everyday life. So by harnessing the power of wearable devices, we are able to get some additional insight that we might not be able to get from other methods.” Wearable devices provide one outlet for users to learn more about their health as well as collect data for researchers, helping the industry to move forward.

Artificial Intelligence and Landscaping
In addition to changing the way that the medical field works, some businesses are exploring using AI for more menial tasks like cutting the lawn. Longmont-based Scythe Robotics is one such business that is helping to introduce smart mowers to the market.

Landscaping in Colorado is constantly growing, yet it can be difficult to find humans to fill employee roles for mundane tasks like mowing. Scythe’s Marketing Director, Billy Otteman, stated, “We are building the tools to more productively and sustainably take care of our outside spaces. Our first product is a mower. It’s a large machine.” The idea is to allow the smart mowers to tackle large amounts of mowing to allow other employees to attend to higher-value work.

A lingering question that Scythe receives on the regular is: Will the robots take my job? The answer is complicated, but Otteman believes that the robots have simply created a shift in title rather than employment opportunities.

“I think that is a serious question. But overall we see the opposite. We’re seeing that already. People are being more productive in their jobs as a result… Overall, we see a huge benefit here because there is such a labor shortage.”

In this case, AI is being used to look for obstacles amidst lawn cutting, “The autonomy of the machine is powered by artificial intelligence. There’s a machine learning model that it uses to identify and navigate around different obstacles. So we’ve trained the machine on the difference between a tree and a person,” said Otteman.

The opportunity to improve landscaping operations on a large scale has many businesses vying for a unit. “We have a waitlist that’s 1000s of units long. Even before covid, there was a crippling labor crisis in landscaping. It’s hard work. Our customers are telling us that almost every one of them could double or triple the size of their business if they had people to do the work.”

One of the reasons why Otteman is excited about Scythe’s technology is because it offers an unexpected hand to a previously stagnant industry, “You’re working with technology and with big data in an industry that’s been pretty sleepy from an innovation standpoint. We’re already starting to see it – for example, one of our customers took two machines. The crew manager did really well and is now being sent to other divisions of their business to use the machine. He’s getting these leadership opportunities,” he added.

Another perk of jumping on the AI lawnmower train is its ability to reduce emissions. Scythe provides an electric machine as a leasing option, “which completely eliminates their emissions from mowing. Commercial mowers alone omit 30 million metric tons of CO2 per year. So to decarbonize that operation or at least take steps towards sustainability,” said Otteman. The company also claims responsibility for the majority of repairs and maintenance of vehicles as a condition of the leasing and rental agreement.