Electric Plant develops Bombadil AI model to decode electrical communication in crops Other

United States startup Electric Plant is developing an artificial intelligence model named Bombadil to decode the bio-electrical signals emitted by plants and trees. The system translates biological distress impulses into actionable notifications for agricultural producers.

Electric Plant collects electrical frequencies using hardware sensors roughly the size of a smartphone attached directly to tree trunks and stems. The founders claim that real-time interpretation of plant stress can boost agricultural yields while reducing commercial water consumption by up to 20%.

What it is

• Bio-electrical decoding. Bombadil translates micro-voltage spikes and electrical patterns in plant tissue into crop hydration and nutrient diagnostics.
• Hardware sensors. Specialized tree-mounted sensors continuously sample bio-signals and upload telemetry over low-power agricultural mesh networks.
• Resource efficiency. Early field trials indicate the system can reduce irrigation volume by up to 20% by alerting farmers before visible dehydration symptoms appear.
• Long-term goal. Electric Plant aims to build a bi-directional interface that allows farm managers to communicate directly with botanical systems.

Field trial metrics

Sources

• TechCrunch: Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language