What comes to mind when you think of AI? ChatGPT? Skynet? Cats doing impossible things? How about making better beer? When I'm sitting around the family dinner table this easter enjoying a cold one or three, I'll have to bring up the fact that AI could in fact be used to make beer taste better.
Even if the thought of a bunch of computer servers messing with one of my favorite things is sacrilege, the resulting 'improved' beers were favorably received.
The model was trained using 180,000 online beer reviews and the feedback from a tasting panel consisting of 16 participants. The panel sampled 250 beers for 50 different attributes over the course of three years, including bitterness, sweetness, alcohol content and malt aroma.
: We dive into the lingo of AI and what the terms actually mean.
Obviously, beer is more than just a list of ingredients chucked into a vat. The skill and methodology of the brewer will always be key to a good beer. But, if an AI can make suggestions on how to make a beer taste better, or just as importantly, suggest how to [[link]] turn a shitty beer into a good one, then I volunteer to be a guinea pig at the next testing session. As long as said beer is free.
On a more serious note, the team managed to create non-alcoholic beer that was indistinguishable from regular beer after making changes suggested by the model. There's definitely no harm in that.
Finally, I'm not sure if my university professors would have approved if I went to them and said "Ï want to write a paper on beer". I wish I'd thought of it though.