Thanks to A.I., Machines Get a Taste for the Right Kinds of Food

When Shahmeer Mirza began working at PepsiCo., which owns the Frito-Lay brand, one of his first tasks was teaching a machine sensory perception. By bouncing lasers off chips, he could capture the sound they make when someone bites into one. The thickness of the chip and the time and temperature of the frying could all be adjusted to create the perfect bite without a worker having to constantly sample chips. It was such a revolution his work was awarded a patent, but it's only one way in which A.I. is being put to use at snack plants. Repetitive tasks like picking out a bad potato and throwing it away might take a worker a second or two.