Artificial Intelligence Content

AI Tool to Help Farmers Measure Real-Time Crop Health from the Field

Andy Fell — September 24, 2025 - 3:24pm

Leaf Monitor, a new mobile tool backed by artificial intelligence and predictive modeling, could revolutionize how farmers monitor crops and make decisions by providing real-time nutrition and leaf trait information in the field.

Federal Grants Support Research on AI-driven Protein Design

Andy Fell — September 19, 2025 - 10:26am

Two projects at the University of California, Davis, that use artificial intelligence to design and engineer proteins for industrial and health applications have been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

UC Davis Study Reveals Alarming Browser Tracking by GenAI Assistants

Andy Fell — August 18, 2025 - 12:09pm

A new study led by computer scientists at the University of California, Davis, reveals that generative AI browser assistants collect and share sensitive data without users’ knowledge. Stronger safeguards, transparency and awareness are needed to protect user privacy online, the researchers said.

A new brand of generative AI, or GenAI, browser extensions act as your personal assistant as you surf the web, making browsing easier and more personalized. They can summarize web pages, answer questions, translate text and take notes.

National Science Foundation Awards UC Davis $5 Million for Artificial Intelligence Hub

Andy Fell — July 29, 2025 - 1:55pm

The National Science Foundation has awarded $5 million over five years to the University of California, Davis, to run the Artificial Intelligence Institutes Virtual Organization, a community hub for new and existing AI institutes established by the federal government.

AIVO is part of a $100 million public-private investment in AI announced by NSF July 29.

How Plants are Learning to Spot Sneaky Bacterial Invaders

Amy M Quinton — July 28, 2025 - 2:00am

UC Davis scientists are using AI t help plants recognize a wider range of bacterial threats.

UC Davis and Proteus Space to Launch First-Ever Dynamic Digital Twin into Space

Andy Fell — June 25, 2025 - 10:12am

The Center for Space Exploration Research at the University of California, Davis, has partnered with Proteus Space to launch a US government-sponsored satellite into space with a custom AI-enabled payload in a brand-new, first-ever rapid design-to-deployment small satellite.

The team will launch the satellite and payload in October 2025 from Vandenberg, CA. From the time the project was fully approved, the design and launch will occur within an unprecedented 13 months. (The normal pace for small satellites is often measured in years.)

AI: A Tectonic Shift in Human Society

Andy Fell — October 08, 2024 - 3:59pm

The first time most people could communicate with a computer that responded like a real person was in 2022 when OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT. Just two months later, the app set the record for the fastest-growing user base with 100 million monthly active users.

From Viruses to Galaxies, How Machine Learning Helps Scientific Discovery

Andy Fell — October 03, 2024 - 3:52pm

Peruse any news media outlet and you’ll probably find an article touting or warning about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. With the advent of publicly accessible generative AI models like ChatGPT, the field is having its moment in the sun like never before.

Can Autonomous Vehicles Dream of Electric Traffic?

Andy Fell — August 08, 2024 - 2:10pm

An engineering professor at the University of California, Davis, is striving to make autonomous vehicles, or AVs, safer by changing how researchers train them.

According to Professor Junshan Zhang of the UC Davis Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AVs struggle when confronted with unforeseen events, such as a car driving on the wrong side of the road.

Unravelling AI Bias to Build Fair and Trustworthy Algorithms

Andy Fell — March 08, 2024 - 3:02pm

In 2017, Ian Davidson, a professor of computer science at UC Davis, was on sabbatical as a fellow of the Collegium de Lyon in France. The institute brings together intellectuals, philosophers, artists and academics from all over the world to live together for one year to "think about great things."