Food & Machines.
In Food & Machines we research and experiment using artificial intelligent technologies in the context of commercial kitchens. We seek to explore where technology augments rather than automates the abilities of chefs, thus creating new business opportunities.
IS FOOD ART OR SCIENCE?
This is an interesting philosophical question, but also a practical one for our team exploring technologies and designing ventures in food-related industries.
We asked chefs and other food industry professionals the question, “is food art or science” and overwhelmingly the response we got was “well, it depends” or “both”. Depending on which aspect of food, from the type of cuisine, to the tasks involved in cooking, to plating a dish, to the experience of eating, the ratio of art to science changes. And it also changes based on who you ask, reflecting personal biases and philosophies of what food is. But the conclusion is clear, there is a quintessential element of art.
MACHINES FOR AUTOMATION.
From blenders to smart ovens, modern food-related technologies primarily use technology to achieve automation. This is consistent with the technologies of the industrial era, an era in which competition was won on scalable and efficient production of a standardized product. Today, we also see applications of technologies built mainly to automate. CafeX and Moley, for example, envision a future where robots would replace human workers in cafes and restaurants.
Although technology will displace some human workers, we believe there will always be an important role for chefs to play in the creation of food. This is especially true as we move away from the industrial era (the end of scale) and into a world of greater customization and non-standardization in products and services. The key question is what is the role of technology vs human?
A DIFFERENT KIND OF MACHINE.
There is a different breed of artificial intelligent technologies that some are calling IA, intelligence augmentation. The idea is that the technologies could be designed and developed in such a way as to not replace human intelligence but rather augment it. My favorite metaphor of this idea is the abacus vs calculator from Sante Fe Institute Professor David Krakauer: whereas a calculator does the math for you, an abacus is a tool and cognitive construct that enables us to perform mental math.
whereas a calculator does the math for you, an abacus is a tool and cognitive artifact that enables us to perform mental math.
An example of IA is Google’s NSynth Super, which uses machine learning to create completely new sounds to augment the creativity of musicians. Another example is Adobe’s Sensei, which gives designers generative design tools to work with.
In food, there are interesting examples of IA as well. FoodPairing enables chefs to find pairings with a massive database of ingredients, broken down by taste, aroma, and texture. IBM has an ambitious online tool, Chef Watson, that generates food recipes.
WHAT’S NEXT?
It’s a great start, but we believe we have yet to realize the range of meaningful applications. With technology leaders like Google open-sourcing tools for the public to experiment with, we believe what will come next are applications built with a high degree of contextual relevance and empathy to users. And that’s what we’re most excited to see entrepreneurs and established players delve into.
what will come next are applications built with a higher degree of contextual relevance and empathy to users.
In this series, we explore meaningful applications of artificial intelligent technologies that seek to augment the chef in a commercial kitchen. Could we use generative algorithms to enhance creativity? How might we use machine vision to provide feedback of diners for chefs in real-time? How would we train a machine to perform repetitive tasks for a chef? These are the types of questions we are exploring.
YEAST. is a future of food laboratory. We explore the relationship between food, emerging technologies, and urban living.
This is part of the series for Food x Machines.
- Kitchen Intelligence: Introduction to a YEAST lab.
- Kitchen Conversations: A look into what meaningful roles technology could play in commercial kitchens.
- Ghost Chef: Augmenting and supporting creativity for the future kitchen.
- Trainable Measures: Trainable and subjective devices for the future kitchen.
