Plants can speak using electricity, so this startup built an AI model to decipher their language
News Source
•Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:00 +0000
📰 What Happened
A startup called Electric Plant is teaching AI to read plants' signals. Plants send tiny electrical pulses through their stems. The company built a model called Bombadil to decode them. Growers could learn what plants need from those signals.
The founders were inspired by a cyborg plant experiment. A houseplant moved itself toward light using electrical signals. Electric Plant just raised 11.2 million dollars in seed funding. Investors include Onto Ventures and Climactic.
🔍 The Backstory
Plants have used electrical signals to react to their world for ages. Scientists have studied these signals for years. But turning them into useful data is very new. The founders spent three years collecting data for the model.
Co-founder Justin Mast came from a reading habit that changed his life. Partner Lee von Kraus is a neuroscientist who worked with DARPA. They hope the tool will one day let people speak to plants. Even controlled greenhouses lack full visibility into crops.
🎯 Why It Matters
The tool could help farmers grow food with less waste. Reading plant needs early means better crops and less loss. That matters for food prices and feeding a growing world.
A startup called Electric Plant is teaching AI to read plants' signals. Plants send tiny electrical pulses through their stems. The company built a model called Bombadil to decode them. Growers could learn what plants need from those signals.
The founders were inspired by a cyborg plant experiment. A houseplant moved itself toward light using electrical signals. Electric Plant just raised 11.2 million dollars in seed funding. Investors include Onto Ventures and Climactic.
Plants have used electrical signals to react to their world for ages. Scientists have studied these signals for years. But turning them into useful data is very new. The founders spent three years collecting data for the model.
Co-founder Justin Mast came from a reading habit that changed his life. Partner Lee von Kraus is a neuroscientist who worked with DARPA. They hope the tool will one day let people speak to plants. Even controlled greenhouses lack full visibility into crops.
The tool could help farmers grow food with less waste. Reading plant needs early means better crops and less loss. That matters for food prices and feeding a growing world.