Japanese farmer using ChatGPT
A Japanese farmer, Hiroki Tomiyasu, is using ChatGPT and Codex to run a 100-hectare farm, automating greenhouse controls, diagnosing crop diseases, integrating satellite data, and building internal tools without formal engineering training.
Tomiyasu, a former public servant turned broccoli farmer, is effectively “hiring AI as an engineer.”
He prompts ChatGPT to identify plant diseases from photos, designs IoT systems (e.g., remote-controlled greenhouse vents via messaging apps), builds databases for farm management, and mines chat logs for operational insights—all while documenting the process as a series of experiments.
Think of this as self-serve digital transformation. Historically, automation at this level required capital, vendors, and specialists.
Generative AI collapses that stack. What we’re seeing is the rise of the AI-augmented operator: a domain expert with on-demand engineering capability.
Farming is an early, physical world proof point.
WHY IT MATTERS
This is behavioural change at scale, the capability perception is shifting.
When individuals believe they can build it themselves adoption accelerates. Could bottom-up innovation outpace formal transformation programmes?
Is there an opportunity to redesign organisations around AI empowered employees, with less training on tools, more on problem framing, experimentation, and safe autonomy?
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
→ A rise in “shadow automation” built by non-technical staff
→ Internal chat platforms becoming operational control layers
→ AI-generated tooling replacing SaaS purchases
→ Domain experts bypassing IT queues
→ Employees describing AI as a colleague, not a tool
LIMITATIONS
We don’t see the failures, maintenance overhead, or safety risks (e.g., misconfigured automation in physical systems) or the time investment to reach this level of fluency. Early adopters are not your average employees.
The narrative risks overstating immediacy while underplaying governance, reliability, and scaling challenges.
SOURCE
https://chatgptpro.substack.com/p/hiroki-tomiyasu?_bhlid=12c966c4cc4aea44cc64e40a30923d470cedc88b
