Key Points
The Coca-Cola Company has joined the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium to assist in solving global challenges, beginning with saving the orange industry.
The consortium’s first project, “Save the Orange,” employs generative AI to combat citrus greening, a disease that has decreased Florida’s orange harvest by 30% and cut U.S. orange production by more than half since 2015.
By speeding up research timelines from years to months, the initiative aims to safeguard the world’s orange supply, which could vanish within 25 years without intervention.
The Coca-Cola Company is collaborating with MIT scientists to help preserve the orange for everyone. And if they succeed, it will be all thanks to artificial intelligence.
In September, the company that produces Minute Maid announced its joining the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium as a founding member. The group, it stated, is “committed to harnessing the power of AI for societal good through bold collaborations.”
“We’re thrilled to have the support of Coca‑Cola as a founding member of the Consortium,” Anantha P. Chandrakasan, the provost of MIT, shared in a statement. “Their global reach and insights will be critical in helping us identify pressing challenges, pulling together the right partners and resources, and putting plans into action to solve problems.”
Related: A Deadly Citrus Tree Disease Is Wreaking Havoc on California Fruit
As Coke noted, AI is already transforming “nearly every aspect” of its business, from research and development to marketing and inventory management. And, along with
OpenAI, Analog Devices, Tata Group, SK Telecom, and TWG Global are hoping to bring that AI research and “real-world expertise” to “generate open-source solutions to some of the world’s biggest, most complex challenges.” And that begins with the orange.
Coke explained that the consortium has launched its Project “Save the Orange,” an effort to combat citrus greening, which is currently devastating orange groves worldwide. Food & Wine reported in August that the 2024–2025 Florida orange crop yielded 30% less fruit than the previous year, largely due to citrus greening, a bacterial disease that damages the trees’ vascular tissue. Once infected, a tree stops growing and produces small, bitter fruits, essentially making them unusable. Currently, there is no cure, and as Coke pointed out, without management and treatment, “the global orange supply could vanish in the next 25 years.” The numbers support this concern, with the U.S. producing only 2.2 million tons of oranges in 2025, down from 5.5 million in 2015, according to USDA data.
“As a leading provider of fruit juice worldwide, we have a unique perspective on the critical issue of citrus greening,” Christina Ruggiero, the president of the global nutrition category at The Coca‑Cola Company, said. “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.”
Related: Disease, Hurricane, and Trump’s Tariffs Are to Blame for Orange Juice Getting Way More Expensive
As for how this consortium could help, the team noted that generative AI will be used for data simulation to hasten research timelines, taking them from “years to months.”
“We’re deploying cutting-edge Generative AI in the service of humanity and tackling globally critical problems. Citrus greening has impacted farmers for over 15 years; now it’s high time to combine Generative AI with AgriTech, Biotech, and Life Science to accelerate research and innovation,” Pratik Thakar, the global vice president and head of generative AI at The Coca‑Cola Company, added. “This complex issue demands a unique level of partnership and collaboration to slow down the spread of HLB, and ultimately find a long-term solution.”
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