Top executive David Wallerstein from the Chinese technology company, Tencent, has recently discovered horticulture. He believes combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) and food production will make it possible to unlock enormous potential.
The CEO of Tencent is Ma Huateng, better known as Pony Ma. But David Wallerstein, an American, is also a kind of CEO at the tech giant – Chief Exploration Officer. Officially, he is Senior Executive Vice President of the Chinese company.
With a stock exchange value of $ 523 billion (€ 429 billion), Tencent became one of the top 5 largest tech companies in the world in autumn last year, behind Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, but just ahead of Facebook. Recently, Mr Wallerstein’s thirst for exploration has lighted upon agriculture and horticulture and in particular on the Autonomous Greenhouse.
Mr Wallerstein believes that combining AI with a food production system that is as efficient as possible is “a moral imperative and simply good business”. “What we want for humanity is as many solutions as possible for the issue of food security. Our only option is to commit our brightest talents to creating a food production system that requires decreasing levels of input to achieve an ever-increasing output.”