Computers that can smell...
One of the great advantages of being a Member of the British Society of Perfumers (BSP) is that you get to listen to the most cutting-edge scientific research undertaken in the world of fragrance.
Alex Wiltschko’s Alex Wiltschko recent talk for BSP “Human in the Loop: The Future of AI for fragrance” was a fantastic insight into AI as it relates to fragrance detection and analysis.
Science has found ways to digitise vision and hearing based on the mapping of physical and perceptual properties, but the digitisation of fragrance has always presented a greater challenge as the data points are considerably more varied and complex, as any perfumer will tell you.
Following on from his PhD in neurobiology from Harvard Medical School, Alex worked at Google Brain, where his team developed a graph neural network, pioneering data mapping for fragrance in the form of a principal odor map (POM) https://lnkd.in/gqiFkpXf.
Applying Machine Learning to predict how different molecules smell based on their molecular structure and perceptual descriptions from Master Perfumers, and using a data set of 5000 aroma molecules, AI was then engaged to analyse key relationships and trends.
As a result of this research an odor can now be mapped and predicted, in spite of the traditional hurdle of small bond changes which can completely flip a fragrance.
Alex is now the founder CEO of Osmo, a start up that can generate and detect fragrances based on AI. This is being developed to assist Perfume professionals in the creation of fragrances using better/ safer ingredients, the medical world in the detection of diseases through the medium of scent, and over time, say 5 years according to Alex, will be able to teleport fragrances by detection and accurate recreation.
Interestingly Alex believes that AI will not replace humans in our ability to be generators of original ideas, storytelling, and risk-taking, so at Perfino we believe that we can still lead in alternative scent delivery for all those with perfume allergies and intolerances, but that the brands we work with and fragrance options can only get better.
