What if artificial intelligence could write you a personalised cookbook?
Built by — Osk Studio
Osk Studio creates collaborative and self-initiated works in the form of creative artificial intelligence, virtual reality, films, videos, artworks, exhibitions, publications, albums, clothing, images, campaigns, interactive, among other emerging forms, mediums, practices and technologies.
The Algorithmic Chef would use object detection and artificial intelligence (AI) to create unique recipes from your ingredients that may have otherwise gone to waste. The application would first use object detection technology to visually identify each of the individual ingredients you have at hand. It would then use a Natural Language Processing (such as GPT-3) system trained on a wide array of recipes to write an original recipe, complete with a generated title, ingredient list, simple cooking instructions and a more narrative description.
The accompanying descriptive text would unfold the cooking process and elaborate on the flavour combinations it has selected, adding a richness and texture to the entire experience. The result would be a personalised meal that uses only the foods you already have and encourages a creative and more sustainable approach in the kitchen.
As well as helping you get the most out of your food by reducing wastefulness, The Algorithmic Chef would act as a creative partner in the kitchen, bringing fresh ideas to the table and new inspiration to everyday cooking. Because each meal is algorithmically generated, The Algorithmic Chef is not limited to cookbooks, cuisines or recipes that already exist. Instead, each meal is unique, meaning you can create an almost endless number of alternative recipes using the same ingredients – picking a meal that suits your tastes or sparks your curiosity at that moment.
'Food waste is a widespread but frequently overlooked issue in our homes. Perfectly good ingredients often go unintentionally unused, and we wanted to explore how AI could help creatively tackle this issue.'
By training an NLU system on a curated set of source recipes – tweaking the parameters of things such as the quantities, combinations and treatments of ingredients – the Algorithmic Chef would produce its own unique recipes in a friendly tone of voice. Through regular collaboration with the app, you might even develop new tastes from the novel approaches to your ingredients that the application brings, even finding that you are more adventurous and inventive in the kitchen than before.
'We didn't just want to provide a list of ingredients but instead actively engaged with the sensorial, tactile and nourishing language of food, making the app feel more like a sous chef or a friend in the kitchen than a tool.'
'We're interested in AI as a way to generate outcomes we wouldn't have been able to do as humans alone. Rather than mimicry of our behaviour we look for ways to bring another kind of approach that can open up entirely new possibilities.'