It’s been a talking point of sci-fi books and films for decades: what will happen the robots inevitably take over? With the current rise of Artificial Intelligence and its influence in the world, there’s serious speculation about technology’s role in the future.
Admittedly, we’re a long way off from where we are now and the events of the Terminator franchise (presumably). However, AI’s slow creep into different aspects of our lives will continue.
The whisky industry is not exempt from this, as it has recently been revealed that one of the world’s best known brands is set to dip its toe into the world of AI generated art with a new experience at their brand home.
Diageo-owned Johnnie Walker will offer guests the opportunity to personalise bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label at their Princes Street visitor centre in Edinburgh. These labels will be co-designed using artwork created by Scottish artist Scott Naismith.
Customers will answer three questions that will be used to generate the colours, locations and artistic style featured on the label’s design. The unique labels will then be printed in a matter of minutes.
The launch of the AI experience comes as a result of increasingly consumer demand for personalised products and experiences.
As head of Johnnie Walker Princes Street Rob Maxwell explains: “Since opening, Johnnie Walker Princes Street has striven to become a leader in using the power of AI to personalise guests’ experiences. Johnnie Walker x Scott Naismith is an exciting new step in our commitment to offering those with various tastes and interests something completely different from what’s available in the whisky experience market. This partnership is a true one-of-a-kind.”
Diageo’s in-house ‘breakthrough innovation team’ are behind the ambitious experience. This team seek to development Diageo beyond their products and brands by focussing on elements such as business models or new platforms.
The label-generating aspect of the experience is powered by Project Halo, a bespoke piece of AI-generative technology. In the future Diageo will continue to partner with other industry leaders such as Amazon AWS and Roland DG on the Project Halo initiative.
The experience will only be running at the Princes Street attraction during the month of August and is available with any purchase of the Blue Label at the venue.
While this experience is thought to be the first of its kind, it’s not the whisky world’s first foray into AI.
Perhaps most notably Sweden’s Mackmyra have released the world’s first whisky using AI-generated recipes. In fact ,they were so successful they conducted the experiment and released the results twice.
The AI took information from the distillery’s existing recipes as well as data on sales customer preferences to create whole new recipe. Ultimately, a human got the final say in what was released since the process was overseen by master blender Angela D’Orazio.
Which, when we return to the new Johnnie Walker experience, does offer some comfort for those paranoid about AI. At least the generated artwork is based on an artists’ commissioned work and is used with their consent.
So it looks like we’re still a wee while away before the robots take over the world of whisky. For now, anyway…
