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About this video
“We’re listening more than we’re speaking.” What a plant’s electric signals might reveal.
Would you let an AI tell you what your garden needs?
Sources:
- Electric Plant AI Translates Plant Electrical Signals: https://emergent.sh/news/electric-plant-ai-translates-plant-electrical
- Electric Plant AI Model Aims to Decode Plant Electrical Signals: https://www.renascence.io/news/124137/electric-plant-ai-model-aims-to-decode-plant-electrical-signals
- This AI Startup Decodes Plant Language Through Electricity | The Tech Buzz: https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/this-ai-startup-decodes-plant-language-through-electricity
- Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/plants-can-speak-using-electricity-so-this-startup-built-an-ai-model-to-decipher-their-language/
Photos and footage (Wikimedia Commons, used under their free licences):
- Botanical Garden V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute: User:Владимир Иванов, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Botanical_Garden_V.L._Komarov_Botanical_Institute.jpg)
- The ferns of Great Britain, and their allies the club-mosses, pepperworts, and horsetails (Pl. 2) (8515393495): Pratt, Anne; Pratt, Anne; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_ferns_of_Great_Britain,_and_their_allies_the_club-mosses,_pepperworts,_and_horsetails_(Pl._2)_(8515393495).jpg)
- Tomato je: Softeis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomato_je.jpg)
- US 199 Redwood Highway: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_199_Redwood_Highway.jpg)
- Crops Kansas AST 20010624: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg)
- PivotWithDrops: Laura Wilson farm , USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PivotWithDrops.JPG)
- Jardin potager 001: Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jardin_potager_001.JPG)
- Development-of-an-Agrobacterium-Mediated-Stable-Transformation-Method-for-the-Sensitive-Plant-pone.0088611.s003: Mano H, Fujii T, Sumikawa N, Hiwatashi Y, Hasebe M, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Development-of-an-Agrobacterium-Mediated-Stable-Transformation-Method-for-the-Sensitive-Plant-pone.0088611.s003.ogv)
Music: Voice Over Under by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voice_Over_Under_(ISRC_USUAN1600001).mp3)
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What the video says
CEO Justin Mast claims it can cut water use by TWENTY percent or more. Plants send electric signals. And AI is learning to read them. So what would a plant actually say? A startup called Electric Plant just built an AI model to find out. For three years, they recorded the tiny voltages running through plant stems. Their model, called Bombadil, reads those pulses almost like WORDS. It already reads about a hundred and twenty-five species, from tomatoes to giant redwoods. The sensors cost tens of dollars, and screw into the living tissue under the bark. CEO Justin Mast claims it can cut water use by TWENTY percent or more. Investors are already betting on it, with an eleven point two million dollar seed round. Mast puts it simply: we're listening more than we're speaking, but listening's the first step. My take: until independent tests are published, talking plants are a promise, not proof. Would you let an AI tell you what your garden needs?