So, in today’s episode of ‘What the Hell Will AI Do Next,’ researchers just gave machines a sense of taste and touch. Yeah. Taste. And. Touch. Because clearly, teaching algorithms to paint, write bad poetry, and fake your grandma’s voice wasn’t creepy enough.
Let’s talk about the tasting part first. Scientists trained AI to analyze flavors and ingredients with chemical precision, basically turning robots into sarcastic sommeliers who’ll judge your boxed wine harder than your ex ever did. And it doesn’t even need a tongue. It just dissects molecular data like a judgmental food critic with a PhD in Everything.
Then there’s the whole ‘touch’ thing. Using haptic sensors, AI can now tell the difference between silky smooth and “sandpaper from Satan.” It recognizes textures better than most people do after a bad sunburn. Some researchers claim this will help with autonomous robots handling delicate tasks—which sounds great until you realize they mean replacing more jobs… you know, the ones that still require human hands.
Cue the existential panic. People are lighting up comment sections like it’s the robot apocalypse. “It’s too much!” they wail. “They’re becoming human!” they shriek. Spoiler alert: AI isn’t trying to become human. It’s just playing with our tools better than we can.
But here’s the kicker—we gave it these senses. No AI went rogue and built itself a tongue. This isn’t Skynet; it’s us, always chasing The Next Cool Thing, then clutching our pearls when it actually works. We want to build gods and then act surprised when they start working overtime.
So yeah, your microwave won’t start developing feelings (yet). But the line between ‘machine’ and ‘man’ is getting blurry, and we better stop pretending that was never the plan. Either embrace it—or get really good at growing your own food in some anti-tech commune in the woods. Your choice.