The first samples of the unique whiskey are expected to go on sale in the fall of 2019.
Microsoft announced that it had teamed up with Finnish IT company Fourkind and Swedish distillery Mackmyra Whiskey to create "the world's first whiskey produced through artificial intelligence."
The whisky obtained after the first distillation bears little resemblance to the beverage we are used to, with its characteristic dark color and recognizable taste. For this drink to start, it needs to spend a lot of time (usually counting in years), being in special wooden casks. A lot depends on these barrels. They literally infuse the whiskey with flavor, and a lot depends on what was stored in them before. If the cask was filled with wine, the whiskey will taste the same, but if the cask was filled with sherry, the whiskey will taste very different. No wonder so much attention is paid to the process of maturing whiskey in casks.
Until now, this entire process has been carried out exclusively with the participation of people with unique skills that have been honed over decades. Now the recipe for making whiskey will depend on artificial intelligence. This will be the first attempt to automate traditional production.
As the master buyer from Mackmyra Whiskey states, artificial intelligence is capable of generating up to 70 million recipes. From these, it will select the ones he predicts will be the most popular and of the highest quality, depending on the types of casks currently available. The technology will run on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, with all the necessary algorithms created by Fourkind's developers.
It is emphasized that Mackmyra Whiskey does not intend to fully automate the production process of the noble beverage yet, the recipes created by the technology will be bought by people. They will make the final decision regarding the recipe created by modern technology.
Meanwhile, Fourkind has said it intends to use AI in other industries that use complex recipes, including other beverages, perfumes, sweets and sneaker designs.