Mackmyra AI Whiskey: The world’s first whiskey made with artificial intelligence

“The perfect blend: Get to know the first whiskey in the world that was made with artificial intelligence“,

urges the Mackmyra Whiskey distillery, based in Sweden.

In collaboration with the Finnish technology company Fourkind and Microsoft, the distillery says it has combined distillation techniques that go back almost 1,000 years with 21st century technology.

“To better understand the role of artificial intelligence, we must first understand what gives the whiskey its distinctive character. Whiskeys do not differ simply from their different ingredients, but also from the wooden barrels in which they are stored. Instead of simple containers, the barrels themselves play a vital role in giving each mixture its unique flavor”,

say its creators.

When the distillation is first made, it is a pure liquid that can take several “characters”. In order to obtain the flavor, taste and color of the final product, it must first take years to wooden barrels: This is the stage of “ripening”.

The whiskey ‘maitres’, who take responsibility for distillation, spend years trying and “teasing” the whiskey to achieve the best possible flavors, turning chemistry into art; and here is where Machmyra Whiskey brings to the equation Artificial Intelligence. The machine learning models of distillery use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and AI cognitive services to get Mackmyra’s prescriptions, sales data, and customer preferences to produce new recipes that are expected to be popular with customers.

“This is not just faster than a man doing this manually, but thanks to the ability of the algorithm to sort and compute into a huge amount of data, new and innovative combinations can be found, otherwise we may never think of “,

written on the Mackmyra AI Whiskey website.

However, it is underlined that the purpose of this artificial intelligence solution is not to replace Master Blender, as, although the formula is created by artificial intelligence, human experience is always exploited.

“We believe that whiskey is produced by Al, but man is being cared for. Ultimately, the decision is taken by man”,

says Angela D ‘Oraccio, Master Blender of Mackmyra.

The “Artificial Intelligence Whiskey” of the distillery will be available from the fall of 2019.