Kroger recently launched an all-new Twitter tool to help make deciding what to cook easier than ever before. Conversational bots powered by artificial intelligence are nothing new online, but Kroger's Chefbot utilizes its AI tech to analyze photographs and suggest personalized recipes to Twitter users.
In a world of complex discussions about how Twitter treats misinformation and censorship, there are times when companies utilize the platform to offer new solutions to users. Although some of these quirky tech examples might seem like a gimmick at first, they do offer new and interesting ways to utilize AI, and continue to improve and advance the technology overall.
In a recent announcement, Kroger unveiled Chefbot, a conversational AI tool that uses Twitter to look through user submitted photos and suggest recipes. Like many other retailers, Kroger has started to delve into ways that the company can update its services through the use of newer technologies. The Chefbot tool is the result of a partnership between Kroger, the media agency 360i, and tech companies like Coffee Labs and Clarifai. According to Kroger, Chefbot is programmed to "recognize nearly 2,000 ingredients, unlocking 20,000 Kroger recipes for users to cook." Chefbot is designed to be interactive for users, which is likely the reason that Kroger chose Twitter as the platform for implementation.
How Kroger's Chefbot Works
With Chefbot, users can take a photo of any three ingredients that they already have in their kitchen. Once they have the picture, they can tweet @KrogerChefBot to have their photo analyzed. The tool uses artificial intelligence to identify what the ingredients are and scan a thorough list of recipes that are available. Kroger claims that the tool should respond within a few seconds with a list of recipe recommendations that users can take advantage of.
Chefbot's use of AI is just one of the ways that the technology is being employed to make being home more often easier for users. Just last month, Nvidia revealed its new Broadcast app which helps users sound clearer and look better when video streaming. Spotify recently updated its algorithm to improve the way users listen to music while working out. With every passing year, AI is getting more intelligent and complex, resulting in new and novel solutions, such as this.
However, there have been some concerns about how AI technology can be misused to disproportionately impact minorities. Whether a Twitter chatbot or not, companies will need to take these issues into account when choosing how they implement AI tech into their products and services.
Source: Kroger