There are a few inherent functions of biological beings that you’d think a machine would never quite be able to grasp, but, yet again, AI has its surgically clean mitts in the mix and is burrowing right into the heart of the human condition. This time artificial intelligence has made the pilgrimage to Flavortown and come out with some fresh, tasty ideas that would make Guy Fieri’s frosted tips stand on end.

Seasoning giant McCormick has partnered up with IBM to utilise machine learning and AI to develop new flavour combinations perfectly balanced to our mortal palettes. Blending its own proprietary ‘taste data’ with IBM’s machine learning know-how, McCormick is releasing the ‘ONE’ platform, and kicking things off with one-dish recipes such as Tuscan Chicken, Bourbon Pork Tenderloin, and New Orleans Sausage – all developed by a smart computer.

“By combining McCormick’s deep data and expertise in science and taste, with IBM’s AI capabilities,” Kathryn Guarini, VP of Industry Research at IBM, says, “we are working together to unlock the bounds of creativity and transform the food and flavour development process.”

And if you thought there were better uses for sentient silicon, you’d be wrong. IBM recently announced the world’s first integrated quantum computer, Q System One, but far more pressing than its advancement into the next age of computing is getting those taste buds tingling just right.

McCormick hopes that its inference-driven flavours will perfectly blend “decades of past product formulas and millions of data points related to consumer taste preferences and palettes.” Yes, not only will our sentient robot overlords have superior knowledge and firepower, they’ll also have the crucial knowledge of how humans love to chomp down on real nasty takeout at 3am.

And with Intel’s upcoming Sunny Cove processors featuring DL Boost – or deep learning instructions – and Nvidia’s Tensor Cores already inferring and denoising our games from within the RTX 20-series, we can soon put our own gaming PCs to work tailoring custom recipes for our taste buds. Can you think of a better use of local AI processing? I didn’t think so.