Coca-Cola has joined a collection of manufacturing, technology and finance companies in a new MIT-led initiative that aims to combat global problems using artificial intelligence.
The Coca‑Cola Company, along with OpenAI, Analog Devices, Tata Group, SK Telecom and TWG Global, make up the founding members of the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium, the beverage giant announced earlier this month.
The consortium will combine industry leaders across multiple sectors with MIT researchers to develop open-source solutions to “some of the world’s biggest, most complex challenges.”
Coke officials, in particular, highlighted the consortium’s Project “Save the Orange,” which aims to combat citrus greening, a bacterial disease that has infected nearly all of Florida’s orange trees and threatens to wipe out the world’s orange supply over the next 25 years.
Coke owns the juice brands Simply and Minute Maid, among others.
“As a leading provider of fruit juice worldwide, we have a unique perspective on the critical issue of citrus greening,” Christina Ruggiero, Coca-Cola’s president, global nutrition, said in a statement. “In these challenging times, we stand with the orange farming community and are closely collaborating with Brazil-based research lab Fundecitrus to find a viable solution.”
