Food and AI

The Food Programme

BBC

Arts, Food

4.4 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How will Artificial Intelligence (AI) transform the food industry? Experts say it's already having an effect - whether through self-service checkouts or the algorithms that determine which recipes you see online or the way supermarkets are using it to predict the next big food trend.

Jaega Wise heads to the Waitrose Headquarters in Berkshire to find out how their product development team is using AI to inform which ingredients they stock on the shelves. She also talks to the firm Tastewise which makes software that calculates food trends by analysing social media and online menus.

A restaurant in Glasgow is already using embodied AI in the form of robots which serve their customers. Jaega witnesses the robots in action and finds diners are divided over their use. She also talks to consumer affairs journalist Harry Wallop about how supermarkets use our data and the futurist Tracey Follows who gives us her take on what might happen next in the world of AI. Jaega also hears the tipped top food trends for 2025.

Presented by Jaega Wise Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Robin Markwell

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.2	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.3	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team has such a diverse
0:21.2	range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through
0:26.0	archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if
0:31.8	you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories
0:37.1	from all around the UK.
0:39.1	I've arrived in Glasgow at Cosmo, which is an all-you-can-eat buffet place.
0:44.5	Now, the reason I'm here is I've heard that robots with a side of AI will be helping to serve me my meal.
0:52.4	So I'm sat at the table waiting patiently for my plates to arrive.
0:56.7	Here I am.
0:59.7	There you go.
1:00.7	Wow.
1:01.7	And there's your plates.
1:03.7	That's fantastic.
1:06.7	Thank you.
1:07.7	Bye.
1:08.7	Bye.
1:09.7	Thank you, Redbot.
1:10.7	This is a, it's probably about two-thirds of a human height.
	...

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