Could robots learn to prune vines like humans?
Scobleizer · x · 2026-07-20
The post tells the story of Sarah Francis Ackerman, a winemaker whose winery was once saved by supporters after an earthquake and who also noticed a spreading vine disease early because she spent so much time in the vineyard.
The author uses that story to argue that vines seem to prefer being cut by human hands, based on a blind A/B test, but asks whether a robot could be built to imitate human cutting closely enough. If that works, it could make the process economically viable. The closing point is that blocking robots may ultimately mean blocking better wine, and that AI will affect every industry in different ways.
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