Like with any form of alcohol, the more you drink whiskey, the better you become at picking out specific flavors and aromas. When you’re past the beginner stage, you’ll sip a glass of bourbon, single malt Scotch whisky, or rye whiskey. Instead of simply stating that it’s “mellow,” “smooth,” or has flavors like vanilla, oak, and wintry spices, you’ll start to pinpoint more nuanced aromas and flavors. We’re talking about things like licorice candy, caramelized sugar, sweet treacle, candied cherries, and countless more.
But, according to a new study, you’ll never be better at picking out and distinguishing aromas than artificial intelligence. That’s right, the robots are coming for our taste buds too. Well, sort of.
The study
The study comes from Germany and a man named Andreas Grasskamp at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV. Grasskamp and his colleagues trained an artificial intelligence odor prediction algorithm called OWsum to describe the scents of various whiskeys.
They learned that AI can tell the difference between different whiskey types while identifying their odors much better than human whiskey experts. It’s not all bad news, though. The AI didn’t spend the day actually sniffing whiskey; it came to its conclusions based solely on data.
The study involved sixteen whisk(e)y samples. Nine Scotch whiskies and seven Bourbon whiskeys were included in the study. The researchers described the aromas and flavors using keywords like flowery, wood, smoky, or fruity, and the program was able to tell the difference between the whisk(e)y types with slightly less than 94% accuracy. Not only that, but the researchers also added more than 390 molecules commonly associated with whiskey. When they gave the artificial intelligence the data from gas chromatography–mass spectrometry explaining the difference chemical compounds generally found in the two whiskey types, the program could tell the two varieties apart 100% of the time.
Bottom line
While this certainly shows how far AI has come, it still shouldn’t worry whisky drinkers as a computer still can’t actually locate the nuanced, complex aromas that our human senses can without a lot of help.
