Sony launches AI unit to “unleash human creativity”

AI is making its presence felt in almost everything we do. Wherever a human decision is involved, there’s a tech company trying to train a machine to do it better, and for the most part, they’ve been succeeding.

Artificial Intelligence: Sony leading the way

Sony is the latest company to delve into the dark arts of AI to try and diversify and enhance its hardware empire. Sony will be setting up Sony AI to explore AI solutions that will complement its current products.

The AI will look to develop AI solutions for imaging and sensor equipment as expected. The company’s research arm will also be looking to AI for gaming aimed at Sony’s Playstation arm.

However, most surprisingly, Sony has earmarked gastronomy as a focus for their AI efforts. Setting up the AI department is an obvious next step as the company tries to build a competitive advantage for its hardware.

There has already been an indication that Japanese firm patented an AI solution that could be implemented in the PlayStation 5.

Great news for Foodies

Sony AI will operate out of Japan, Europe and the United States and interestingly is looking to make gastronomy one of its key focus areas. This is a surprising and potentially ingenious move by the Japanese company.

Its competitors in the AI space have already made considerable strides in the fields of medicine in the case of IBM and Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple have a significant in the consumer AI assistants space.

Sony looks to be the first and only company looking to harness the power of AI and robotics when it comes to cooking.

Sony is not looking to replace chefs and traditional cooking but instead seems to be looking to create cooking solutions that are beyond what humans are capable of currently.

According to Sony’s spokesperson, cooking can be distilled to chemical processes. AI, in combination with sensing technology, may be best placed to make decisions around temperature and timing, which could allow the creation of “new things”.

The future of automated kitchens

Apart from the possibilities around innovative new cooking techniques and dishes, there’s also the opportunity to combine it’s AI technology with its robotics savvy to created automated kitchens.

These kinds of automation solutions would be able to revolutionize what’s possible in-home cooking with the added benefit of increased safety. This would be ideal for food preparation for the elderly and infirmed.

Sony AI will be headed up by Hiroaki Kitano, who is the president and CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories with the American Sony AI site led by Peter Stone.

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