Eye on AI - April 19, 2019
Welcome to Aigora's "Eye on AI" series, where we round up exciting news at the intersection of consumer science and artificial intelligence!
We start this week with an article by Bernard Marr in Forbes, where he reviews how Warby Parker uses AI for their customer management, customer service, and recommendation system. He also discusses how Warby Parker employs augmented reality (AR) to assist with online product evaluations - while AR is a different technology from AI, it's worth keeping on eye on as well for the possibilities it opens up for consumer scientists. On that note, there is an excellent article just out in the Harvard Business Review listing the important questions retailers should ask themselves before launching forward with AR initiatives.
Continuing our recent spotlight on robotic farming (see April 5th and April 12th EoAIs), it's also worth keeping an eye on the impact that technology is making on the food supply chain. First, McKinsey and Company provide a comprehensive overview of the ways that AI can help to reduce waste in the food supply. Next, in Forbes, Donald Marvin discusses how the Irish agtech company Cainthus is using AI to increase milk production in cows using, among other things, "facial recognition for cows." And, finally, Nestlé and Carrefour announced they would use blockchain to inform their consumers about the supply chain details of Mousline purée. My opinion is that blockchain is going to become increasingly important as consumers become interested in supply chain details. This past week's food safety recall, this time involving pre-cut melons, only underscores this point.
Finally, our last article this week is not immediately related to consumer science, but is eye-opening indeed. Boston Dynamics' latest video shows a team of their spot mini quadrupedal robots towing a moving truck. Read and watch more here at CNET. This video comes on the heels of their equally eye-opening demonstration of the ability of their Handle robots warehouse unloading capability. These videos are so impressive I honestly don't know how to feel about them. Watch them yourself and let me know what you think.
That's it for now. If you'd like to receive email updates from Aigora, including weekly video recaps of our blog activity, just click on the button below to join our email list. Thanks for stopping by!
