A.I. Generated Whisky

Whisky and art. The two are often intertwined, with the creation of the fine spirit often being referred to as an art form in itself. And, for better or worse, it is closely tied to great writers like Ernest Hemingway. Do you know what else whisky and art share in the modern day? They can both be generated by AI.

Meet Sweden’s Mackmyra Whisky. The distillery was founded by a group of friends in 1999 and has won several international awards and various other acclaims. But recently, they’ve been upgrading their tech to dystopian levels.

With input from Microsoft and a Finnish tech company, Mackmyra are creating the first ever whisky developed by AI, bringing advanced technology to a centuries-old tradition. This may sound soulless and terrifying, but what part does the AI play?

The thing with whisky, is that it takes a long time to make. Simply using a different wood in your casks can have such a major effect on the taste when you crack it open ten years later. This means that Master Distillers can spend their whole lives tweaking and adjusting before passing on the job to the next generation, who tweak and adjust until they’re dead too. There are simply too many combinations to consider. Which is where the AI comes in.

It is fed with Mackmyra’s existing recipes, sales data and customer tastes to develop over 70 million possibilites based on the availability of casks in the warehouse. This vast amount of data allows the distillery to consider new combinations and recipes with the hope of innovation in the world of whisky.

Thankfully, the company does stress that blenders and distillers are here to stay. Angela D’Orazio, the Master Blender at Mackmyra, has stated that AI can never imitate or replace the sensory experience of whisky. To confirm this, she said that “The whisky is AI generated, but human curated. Ultimately, the decision is made by a person”.

In my opinion, this is nowhere near as disruptive as the introduction of AI art. Sure, it cuts a lot of corners, but the biggest issue with creating new whisky is the length of time you must wait. There’s a lot on the line if you’re starting a distillery – if you take a creative risk and it doesn’t work out, you’ve put a lot of money into a bottle of mud. So, providing this is used ethically and responsibly, I see it solely as a force for good.

And why not try it for yourself? Mackmyra’s tech-themed AI ‘Inteligens’ whisky can be bought today! (We are not sponsored… yet).