AI watch: The latest on artificial intelligence in food

Mitigating the risk of extinction from artificial intelligence should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

This is the perspective of non-profit Center for AI Safety, backed up by executives at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Bill Gates.

But not all working with AI are as concerned about a potential doomsday scenario. In the food industry, the technology is being leveraged to optimise inefficiencies across almost all areas, from agriculture through to new product development, food safety and even retail.

If used wisely, AI holds real promise to create positive disruption. How are food and beverage makers leaning into algorithms and machine learning?

Here’s the latest…

3 May 2024: From the environment to AI: Disruptive forces in the food and beverage industry​

The past decade has seen seismic shifts in the economic, environmental, political and technological landscapes. But how are these and other influences affecting the food and beverage industry?

GettyImages/schnarrs

24 Apr 2024: Will AI revolutionise how brewers create new beers?​

Brewers have long championed the craft and passion behind brewing beer, but scientists believe AI and machine learning has the potential to revolutionise the how the industry develops new brews.

20 Mar 2024: How can AI understand the functional food market and the needs that drive it?​

Functional food trends are driven by more than just taste: they’re driven by human need. With AI, the market can be analysed the needs driving consumption understood.

12 Dec 2023: Finding microplastics with AI: A boon for the food industry?​

Researchers have developed a way to use artificial intelligence to help find microplastics more efficiently, which could provide a useful way to find them in food.

23 Nov 2023: Unilever’s first AI lab will focus on forecasting, trends, insights​

UK-headquartered Unilever has announced plans to open up its first lab dedicated to AI, where employees will optimise data and insights, as well as explore trends.

20 Sep 2023: WHO AI tool to clampdown on infant formula marketing​

The World Health Organization Europe is calling on consumers to use its newly developed artificial intelligence tool in order to clampdown an deregulate the promotion of harmful products targeted at children.

28 Jul 2023: ‘World’s first’ energy drink developed by artificial intelligence​

In Hungary, a beverage manufacturer claims to have produced the ‘world’s first’ energy drink completely designed by AI.

9 Jul 2023: Artificial intelligence designs soda for Swiss market: ‘We were gripped by AI fever’​

It took just two days for Swiss beverage company Vivi Kola to develop the artificially intelligence-designed beverage using ChatGPT, Midjourney and Unreal Engine.

17 Apr 2023: ChatGPT: Should we be scared?​

ChatGPT has many of us intrigued and nervous in equal measure, but Huel co-founder James Collier asks if this tool is any scarier than the current situation with ‘nonsense nutrition content’ touted across social media by pseudoscientists.

2 Mar 2022: Risks of using AI to row our food ‘poorly understood’ and ‘under appreciated’​

The use of artificial intelligence in agriculture comes with substantial potential risks for farms, farmers and food security, warns a new risk analysis.