Making your own food is not like making anything else. Food is fundamental to health – a healthy body and soul – so how it is accessed, prepared and consumed can fundamentally change societies.
Automatic kitchens are not sci-fi ideas from “The Jetsons” or “Star Trek.” Technology is real and global. Currently, robots are used to flip burgers, fry chicken, make pizzas, make sushi, prepare salads, serve ramen, bake bread, mix cocktails and much more. AI can create recipes based on the molecular interactions of ingredients and whatever the kitchen has in stock. The most advanced concepts are in the works to transform the entire kitchen for good eating.
As the technology is often expensive at first, the first adopters of AI kitchen technology are restaurants and other businesses. Over time, prices may drop enough in the domestic market, possibly changing both domestic and social dynamics.
Can food technology really change society? Yes, just imagine the seismic impact of a microwave oven. With that technology, it was suddenly possible to cook fast food for one person, which could be profitable but also a nuisance to society.
Common concerns about the technology include poor nutrition and health from prepackaged foods and microwaved plastic containers. Obviously, that is easy and can turn food from a social event, culture and art into a useful act of survival – changing relationships, customs, the way people work, the art of cooking and other aspects of life for millions of people.
For example, think about how different life would be without a microwave. Instead of working at your desk during a reheated lunch, you might want to get out and talk to people, and enjoy a break from work. There is something to be said for living slowly in a society that is increasingly confused and alienated from people.
Comfort can come at a great cost, so it is important to look ahead to the possible moral and social disruption that emerging technologies may bring, especially in a deeply human and cultural domain – food – which is connected to everyday life.
With funding from the US National Science Foundation, my team at California Polytechnic State University has embarked on what we believe is the first study of the effects AI kitchens and robot chefs could have on diverse societies and cultures around the world. We’ve mapped out three broad areas of benefits and risks to explore.
Creators and consumers
The benefits of AI kitchens include enabling chefs to be more creative, as well as eliminating repetitive, boring tasks like peeling potatoes or standing at a workstation for hours. Technology can free up time. Not having to cook means being able to spend more time with family or focus on urgent tasks. With personalized meals, AI can cater for a wide range of special diets, allergies and preferences on demand.
However, there are also risks to human well-being. Cooking can be therapeutic and offers opportunities for many things: gratitude, learning, creativity, communication, adventure, self-expression, growth, independence, self-confidence and more, all of which can be lost if no one needs to cook. Family relationships can be affected if parents and children no longer work together in the kitchen – a safe place to talk, unlike what can feel like interrogation at the dinner table.
The kitchen is also the home science lab, so science education can suffer. Culinary alchemy involves teaching children and other students about microbiology, physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics, cooking techniques and tools, food ingredients and their availability, human health and problem solving. Not cooking can destroy these skills and knowledge.
Society and culture
AI can aid in experimentation and innovation, such as creating detailed food presentations and novel recipes within the spirit of culture. Just as AI and robotics help generate new scientific knowledge, they can increase understanding of, say, the properties of food ingredients, their interactions and cooking methods, including new methods.
But there is a danger in the tradition. For example, AI can create traditional recipes and methods, as AI tends to have ideas, for example to flatten or simplify cultural information and classification. This choice may lead to a reduction in the variety of food types produced by AI and robot chefs. Technology developers may be the gatekeepers of food innovation, if the limitations of their machines lead to the creation of edibles and creations, similar to the strangely similar feeling of AI artworks in all different applications.
Also, think about favorite restaurants and favorite dinners. How would the character of those places change with automated kitchens? Would it lower your self-esteem if you knew that those who are cooking for you are not your friends and family but rather robots?
The hope with technology is that more jobs will be created than those lost. Even if there is a net profit in the jobs, the numbers hide the impact on real people’s lives. Many in the food service industry – one of the most popular occupations in any economy – can find themselves unable to learn new skills for a different job. Not everyone can become an AI developer or robotics expert, and it’s not clear that supervising a robot is a better job than cooking.
Philosophically, it is still an open question whether AI is capable of real innovation, especially if that means inspiration and intuition. Taking it that way would be the same mistake as assuming that the chatbot understands what it is saying, instead of generating words that follow previous words mathematically. This has implications for the beauty and authenticity of AI food, such as ongoing debates about AI art and music.
Safety and responsibility
Because humans are the backbone of disease, robot chefs can improve food safety. Precision cutting and other automation can reduce food waste, and AI recipes can make the most of ingredients. Customized foods can have nutritional and health benefits, for example, in helping people avoid allergens and excess salt and sugar.
The technology is still emerging, so it’s unclear whether those benefits will be realized. Foodborne illnesses are unknown. Will AI and robots be able to smell, taste or feel an ingredient’s freshness or lack thereof and perform other safety checks?
Physical security is another issue. It is important to ensure that the robot chef does not accidentally cut, burn or crush someone due to a computer vision failure or other error. AI chatbots have been advising people to eat rocks, glue, gasoline and poisonous mushrooms, so it’s not a stretch to imagine that AI recipes could be flawed, too. While jurisdictions are still struggling to fix credit for autonomous vehicles, it may be just as difficult to get credit for robot chefs, including if they’ve been hacked.
Given the importance of food, food technology helps shape society. The kitchen has a special place in homes, neighborhoods and cultures, so disrupting that venerable center requires careful thought to maximize benefits and minimize risks.
Patrick Lin is a professor of philosophy at California Polytechnic State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the first article.
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