Artificial Intelligence and Food Safety: Hype vs. Reality

To understand the promise and peril of artificial intelligence for food safety, consider the story of Larry Brilliant. Brilliant is a self-described "spiritual seeker," "social change addict," and "rock doc." During his medical internship in 1969, he responded to a San Francisco Chronicle columnist's call for medical help to Native Americans then occupying Alcatraz. Then came Warner Bros.' call to have him join the cast of Medicine Ball Caravan, a sort-of sequel to Woodstock Nation. That caravan ultimately led to a detour to India, where Brilliant spent 2 years studying at the foot of the Himalayas in a monastery under guru Neem Karoli Baba. Toward the end of the stay, Karoli Baba informed Brilliant of his calling: join the World Health Organization (WHO) and eradicate smallpox. He joined the WHO as a medical health officer, as a part of a team making over 1 billion house calls collectively. In 1977, he observed the last human with smallpox, leading WHO to declare the disease eradicated. After a decade battling smallpox, Brilliant went on to establish and lead foundations and start-up companies, and serve as a professor of international health at the University of Michigan. As one corporate brand manager wrote, "There are stories that are so incredible that not even the creative minds that fuel Hollywood could write them with a straight face."[1]