Artificial intelligence can recognise and generate images. It can also understand and respond in voice. Why stop there? Now AI is learning to recognise smells and also gulp! generate it. Only pleasant smells, I hope. Jokes aside, the potential this holds is limitless. Alex Wiltschko, CEO of Osmo, a start-up that helps AI generate smells says, “Smell is this very powerful emotional sense, yet we know so little about it.” With a PHD in olfactory neuroscience from Harward in 2016, Wiltschko went on to spend 5 years at Google working in the area of decoding human ability to smell for machines to be able to use it.
One of the applications of this technology is to help medical practitioners detect illnesses. Another is to generate sustainable molecules for perfumes and fragrances that could be free from allergens. The mission Osmo, as per their website, is to “improve human health and happiness by digitising human sense of smell”
Cathy Gellis, contributor to an American podcast called Techdirt in this episode says that this brings AI closer to mimicking human intelligence more than ever before. The one thing we believe AI doesn’t or can’t be taught easily is emotions because of the complexity of human emotions. However, recognising smell is a tiny step towards that because of the human connection to smell and its impact on emotions. Smell evokes emotions.
As per CBS News, Philadelphia a research project from Philadelphia’s Monnel Center shows that AI can be taught to be as good as – or better than – humans at detecting scents.
Any article on the latest news in AI almost mandatorily includes a section on how many professions it could replace. So, here’s the scoop on that. The advancement of this technology suggests a threat to another traditionally very human job – that of being ‘the nose’ for perfumeries and also in the F&B (food and beverage) sector. The highly specialised job of a tea-taster for example might be replaced by machines. With its potential to detect disease at an early stage, people are asking if this could replace Doctors! AI may or may not replace some humans but what we know for sure is that AI will enhance human output. E.g. it will sharpen a doctor’s ability for quicker and precise diagnoses.
One job that will perhaps never feel threatened by AI is that of scientists. Smell happens to be the least understood of all human senses but scientists are helping machines decode the mysteries of olfactory senses. What is needed to do this, is a map. With colours, it is incredibly simple – it is RGB (Red Green Blue) which can be used to create all the colours. Mapping odour however, is incredibly complex and requires 2D and 3D mapping. Scientists are busy making this possible by correlating 1000s of scents to a string of numbers each. They can then teach the computer to match up the molecular structure of smells to the digitised version of what it smells like. The triumph for human exploration is that we now have a first version of olfactory map. It needs to be built on more from here on. “It is not just a map of smells but potentially a map of memories and emotions”, says the CEO of Osmo.
This is all in the very early stages. We can still laugh at AI for all the ways in which it can go wrong – for a little longer. Before long, these technologies will get sophisticated enough for reliable applications, just as our voice assistants serve us a lot better today than when we first started using them less than 10 years ago.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Be the first to comment on "Digitising Scent"