Solving the Global Food Crisis with AI
Meet Lily
An AI-powered app developed by NextGen Food Robotics, codenamed "Lily," could revolutionize the way people order food and grocery shop. Lily uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue, allowing the app to “learn” users’ behaviors.
There is an urgent crisis that is affecting food prices, subsequently responsible for the catastrophic fall in the global standard of living, not to mention massive damage to the environment. If something doesn’t change, this could result in vast global shortages of food.
The “old” food industry is one of the dirtiest industries in the world. It produces 26% of the world’s greenhouse gases, uses 70% of global freshwater, and it is responsible for 78% of the global ocean and freshwater pollution. But the industry can’t do anything about it because of labor shortage.
This is destroying the profitability of farmers, manufacturers, and restaurants. The whole food supply chain is under stress. It doesn’t have enough resources to transform itself, undermining food security even in developed countries.
One solution to this crisis – AI-powered food production technology using robots to manufacture food, control its quality, and ensure that there’s less food waste to damage the planet. Customers will be able to download the Lily app and place their food orders. The orders will be prepared in NextGens’ ghost kitchen facilities. Then the facilities’ own drones will deliver the orders, eliminating the need for drivers.
Smarter & Smarter
As customers order on the Lily app, NextGen gathers this data and can advise its food manufacturers of trends in the food market. This invaluable data can be sold to food manufacturers to optimize their production so they have less risk when launching new food categories. Customer’s personal data will be protected, and only food trends will be sold to food manufacturers.
The Lily app will be sophisticated enough that, once the user has entered enough orders manually for the app to learn his or her preferences, it will begin to recommend and deliver various meals daily. Users can pick an auto lunch, breakfast, dinner or all three meals auto delivered.
The app will also be able to do the user’s grocery shopping! The user would simply need to tick the auto grocery function and groceries would be delivered weekly to the user. For parents and active people who don’t have the time to cook and grocery shop, this app will change their way of life, with more time for things they enjoy, rather than chores.
Buckle Your Seatbelts
The current wave of AI robotic automation is the biggest yet, and we are only at the beginning. In fact, industry analysts say that the wave of AI-powered robots will be much bigger than the waves enabled by PCs and mobile devices.
Robots are transforming every industry, from shipping to recycling…to food. McDonald’s recently opened an almost fully automated restaurant in Texas. Customers make orders through an app and get their food served by a proprietary food production system.
AI-powered robots are transforming the manufacturing sector. And they remain a favorite investment of the world’s leading venture capitalists. Exotec, a France-based mobile robot developer, raised approximately $306 million Series D round while Icon, a Texas-based construction technology company, closed a $185-million investment.
Conclusion
The older we become, the faster times goes by. At least, that’s the way it seems. I don’t know what Albert Einstein said about that, but I do know that the future is arriving faster than we think. That’s certainly true of AI. We just need to make sure that we’re using it to our benefit. Then, hang on and enjoy the ride!