Skimming through New Scientist articles this morning, I came across one titled “AI beats human experts at distinguishing American whiskey from Scotch.” Apparently, artificial intelligence can now tell the difference between Scotch whisky and American whiskey, and it can also identify the main aromas of the spirit it is analyzing. It can detect the peaty, malty, fruity, spicy, and woody notes of the whisky, and so on. Moreover, as the title of the New Scientist article indicates, the AI proved to be better at this than human experts. Whisky (as well as wine, beer, etc.) connoisseurs, reviewers, and dilettantes like myself may soon need to find new pastimes. If there’s a machine out there that is able to deliver a more comprehensive review of a drink, then whisky or wine tastings won’t be as fun anymore, will they? The cold analysis of an objective machine will kill the phenomenology of the spirit. Philosophizing about the single malt Scotch you’re having is half the fun… However, it is important to note that, technically, the AI (which is an “AI molecular odour prediction algorithm”) isn’t really tasting the drink; it is analyzing the chemical compounds in it. So, for the time being, I’d say it’s still too early for us to worry about AI replacing us in bars and pubs, drinking all our booze, picking up the hottest women, and everything. And even though AI may understand the construction of the spirits much better than we do, it cannot experience that nice buzz we get after the second glass. Not yet, at least.

I wonder if, in the end, insobriety — the Dionysian state many of us enjoy — will remain one of the few characteristics reserved for humans, inaccessible to machines. Or will we also one day witness a (self-aware) machine deliberately exit its Apollonian state to get drunk and have some fun?

After all, it’s only worth it if you can enjoy it. And sentient machines may desire to experience drunkenness…

Reference: Odor prediction of whiskies based on their molecular composition