An app which allows users to download recipes suggested by IBM’s supercomputer Watson is going live for the public to test. The Chef Watson app offers unique recipes by combining ingredients with data about the way humans perceive food. The app is being launched with food magazine Bon Appetit.
The food served up by the cognitive computing platform has had mixed reviews. Last year, Chef Watson was shown off at conferences and other events such as the South by Southwest Festival in Texas. It drew on vast databases, one containing existing recipes, another providing data on flavour compounds in thousands of ingredients and a third with psychological data about how humans perceive different flavours.
At the time, IBM said the system demonstrated how computers could be creative, but added that it was also an example of how, in future, humans and machines would work together. Last year, the firm partnered with Bon Appetit to built a more consumer-friendly app using 9,000 recipes supplied by the magazine. It released a trial version of the app to some readers.
"We’ve been impressed by the creative ideas users have discovered so far, to see not only what dishes they were making, but what common food problems they were solving with the help of Watson," said Stacey C Rivera, digital director of Bon Appetit.