The science fiction solution to a billion-dollar problem

Agricultural weeds cost New Zealand well over $1.7 billion each year and current control methods have significant health and biodiversity drawbacks.
It’s a problem that led Dr Kioumars Ghamkhar, director of AgResearch’s Margot Forde Genebank, to develop an artificial intelligence system that uses lasers to heat weeds up to 300 degrees, killing them instantly.