An interdisciplinary group of researchers developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of writing reviews for wine and beer that are largely indistinguishable from those penned by a human critic. Wine and beer reviews also make a great template for AI-generated text, he explains, because their descriptions contain a lot of specific variables, such as growing region, grape or wheat variety, fermentation style and year of production. "It only understands binary 0's and 1's." Kopalle adds that his team would like to test the algorithm's predictive potential in the future--to have it guess what an as-yet-unreviewed wine would taste like, then compare its description to that of a human reviewer. "An online product review has the ability to really change people's opinion," notes Ben Zhao, a machine learning and cybersecurity expert at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

In the world of wine reviews, evocative writing is key. Consider the following: "While the nose is a bit closed, the palate of this off-dry Riesling is chock full of juicy white grapefruit and tangerine flavors. It's not a deeply concentrated wine, but it's balanced neatly by a strike of lemon-lime acidity that lingers on the finish." Reading the description, you can almost feel the cool glass sweating in your hand and taste a burst of citrus on your tongue. But the author of this review never had that experience--because the author was a piece of software. An interdisciplinary group of researchers developed an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of writing reviews for wine and beer that are largely indistinguishable from those penned by a human critic.