London – Craft beer has taken on a whole new meaning with IntelligentX Brew, the world’s first beer to be made using artificial intelligence.
- The AI Beer was created by machine learning firm Intelligent Layer and creative agency 10x
- A chatbot named Abi (Artificial Beer Intelligence) talks to customers via Facebook Messenger to obtain feedback for the next batch
IntelligentX has created four beers, each informed by consumer feedback. Each beer has a code, which consumers can then scan to begin chatting with Abi, a chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which will ask questions about flavours and consumer preferences. As with most AI bots, the more Abi chats to consumers, the more it learns what questions to ask.
The feedback is then sent to human brewers to tweak the next batch of beer. For IntelligentX, using AI means that data can be received and acted on more quickly than with any other method of focus group research. ‘We are putting expert brewers and all our customers in the same room,’ says Rob McInerney, co-founder of IntelligentX. ‘This leads to creativity structured by data, that enables us to evolve our beer generation after generation.’
The Big Picture
IntelligentX Brew is created by AI and humans. The collaboration is necessary to produce something that tastes good. For more on the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to creative manufacturing, see our Opinion piece, Cracking Creativity.