AI Through the Lens of AA

EDITORIAL: PATRICK DAWKINS (EDITOR)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Let's hope it is not artificial intelligence who controls le guillotine if the worst of times arrives. In the mean time, Apiarist's Advocate will stay true to human analysis and reporting, while embracing "the best" of AI.

Pardon me for stealing from Dickens his most iconic lines – but I wouldn’t be the first – and when launching a screed on artificial intelligence, it seems only fitting to draw from a human’s original material as a starting point. The great 19^th-century novelist wrote those iconic opening lines in his novel set to the French revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, but they seem a fitting description of our current epoch, the AI revolution. 'It was so far like our present period"...

In these pages in recent years we have addressed AI trends in apiculture only sparingly, given its wide significance across the world we now live in, and we have not conveyed a specific policy regarding the use of AI-generated content within Apiarist’s Advocate.

In beekeeping “AI” has more commonly referred to ‘artificial insemination’ of queen bees, but now it seems most minds will logically read AI as ‘artificial intelligence’. Apiarist’s Advocate first made reference to ‘The Benefits of AI in Beekeeping’ in April 2023 with a column “by” MyApiary director Darren Bainbridge. That column, he revealed at its conclusion, had been entirely composed by ChatGPT. An early indication of its seeming ‘creative’ power, but more importantly the column addressed various methods in which AI was already being used around apiculture. “We had everything before us…”

Since then, as the calendar turned to 2024, we ran a two-part series from science writer Dave Black on ‘Intelligent Apiculture’ (Part 1, Part 2). Then in August 2025 Dave’s excellent No More Heroes (Any More) delved into the world of hive management software, which has an AI component. “It was the age of wisdom…”

We’ve published more reports and opinion pieces on the AI-issue (Google’s AI agent will lay them all out for you if you ask!) but going forward it shapes as the topic-de-jour for a few days yet. For this reason we are going to reach out to various people and groups around the industry for their tips, tricks, advice and pitfalls regarding using AI. “It was the season of Light…”

Our own analysis and reporting will no doubt increasingly intersect with AI uses, including this month’s report Mānuka Trademark Evidence Files – ‘Let Me Tell You a True Story’, as an example of where relying on seemingly AI-generated content, and potentially workflows, can bring you unstuck.

AI and AA

As for this publication’s use of AI, we have no set policy there because the abilities of AI and ‘large language models’ seem to move so quickly. What I can promise is our written content will continue to originate with human analysis and creativity.

A publisher in 2026 cannot claim that AI will not play a part in those words getting to the page. Afterall, who among us has not relied on spell check, or succumbed to a right-click -> synonyms to unearth a replacement word. However, I believe it is human understanding of the complex issues of our industry that provide the best analysis and so all contributors are expected to originate submissions themselves. Afterall, AI’s analysis of our industry often reverts back to knowledge published by Apiarist’s Advocate anyway.

Would you look at that, an AI generated image... and Apiarist's Advocate Pod podcast utilises AI to convert written word to audio. Human analysis and reporting will continue to create Apiarist's Advocate's written content though.

AI has great value for a publisher as a research agent it must be said (while being sure to determine the source material for information being offered up), and you will have noticed several cartoons or images we have used which have been created through AI. Where possible we will seek to caption such images as AI-generated, but at this point it is readily apparent they are not photos and that is the important determination. We have embraced AI to do the yeoman’s work for our podcast, Apiarist’s Advocate Pod, where an AI agent converts the text of some of our content to audio.

Superlative Degrees of Comparison Best Avoided

Some bright minds have prophesised the end of human civilisation if AI is not shackled appropriately. That’s probably a little beyond the scope of this publication to analyse. Thus we will not be one of the “noisiest authorities” on the use of AI, but will look to continue to scrutinise its use within our industry in our own way, while using it ourselves in our own, limited, way. In short, we won’t insist on AI being received simply “for good or for evil” or “in the superlative degree of comparison only” but with a more sober, case-by-case analysis.

It’s the epoch of artificial intelligence, a technological revolution, and not even the beekeepers will be spared the best and worst of times that come with it.