Machine Generated Whiskey

Thanks to Microsoft, and a lot of whiskey data.

A Swedish distillery company called Mackmyra is teaming up with Microsoft and FourKind — a Finnish technology consultancy, to create a special whisky recipe using AI.

So, if your wish was to drink something (Or a whiskey) created by AI — you should celebrate.

Now, imagine having more than 70 million recipes to make whiskey.

That’s insane, right?

Well, you would think that no one can create such a number of recipes. — At least no humans.

Well, thanks to the power of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and Azure cognitive services, it’s becoming a reality. Microsoft helped in developing a distillery machine learning models that can take data from existing recipes for making whiskey. —To create recipes that should be both popular and tasty.

“We always strive to challenge the traditions in the very traditional whiskey trade, and that’s something we really do now when we develop a whiskey with the help of AI. We see AI as a part of our digital development, it is really exciting to let AI be a complement to the craft of producing a high-quality whiskey” says Angela D’Orazio from Mackmyra.

Don’t worry, robots aren’t about to take the job of whiskey distillers. — The aim of the project is to find new combinations of methods and ingredients that humans can’t think of. — Making whiskey is more than just recipe ideas and requires as all the senses especially smell, that for now, at least the robots can’t do.

“Algorithms don’t have senses, so we need another take on how to understand something so complex as whisky." Iarno Kartel, - Machine Learning Partner at Fourkind

“The work of a master blender is not at risk. While the whiskey recipe is created by AI, we still benefit from a person’s expertise and knowledge,especially the human sensory part, that can never be replaced by any program. We believe that the whiskey is AI-generated, but human-curated.Ultimately, the decision is made by a person.“Says Angela D’Orazio from Mackmyra.

Microsoft confirmed that Mackmyra’s AI-generated whiskey will be available from Autumn 2019, that means you will be able to buy it.