WEBVTT - The Borg Chef 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.120 Forward Thinking. Hey, they're in weld into Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.200 podcast that looks at the future and says John Belaiah 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.800 and the Crawfish Pie and a Dele Gumbo. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.439 I'm Lauren block Oban, and I'm Joe McCormick. And today 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.880 you're hungry. Well, actually I am hungry. I'm pretty much 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.880 always hungry. I too early today and now I am hungry. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.080 It's my secret. I'm always hungry. So today for lunch, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.680 I went to a local h what would you call it, shrine, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:45.959 local local establishment called eats. It's a Southern cafeteria. It's 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.000 called Eats. The sign for which I always think. I 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.279 don't think anybody agrees with me, but to me, the 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.480 sign for Eats looks like it says ants, so I 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.040 call it iNTS. So, so lunch there can last upwards 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.440 of ten years. It really could. It could be in 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.920 your body that long. Uh, Joe. Joe decided to be 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.360 adventurous and try something that he doesn't normally try. Yeah. Well, 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.720 I didn't like my my new dishes as much today 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.360 as I like their their standard like jerk chicken, which 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.080 is pretty good. They're really known for it. But it 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.200 is definitely always worth being a little adventurous in the 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.560 kitchen trying something new. Yeah, and and another thing we 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.280 wanted to mention. The new thing is going to become 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.479 really important later on and it gets weird, y'all, but 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.080 before we get there. Uh, you know, the other thing 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.319 I wanted to mention is that the kitchen has for 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.640 a really long time been kind of a gateway to 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.119 technology in the home. H Yeah. Yeah, people are very 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:46.640 technologically adventurous in the kitchen as well as food wise. Yeah. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.520 I think I even was looking around and the reason 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.960 why whenever c e S rolls around that used to 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.280 be known as the Consumer Electronic Showcase, but now it's 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.760 just c E S. Uh. There's always a huge number 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:03.320 of various alliances and inventions that our kitchen oriented, and 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.840 it's largely because when it comes to technology, we tend 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.399 to adopt it for the kitchen pretty early. People love 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:14.360 kitchen gadgets. Yeah, late night TV filled with the various 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.840 kitchen gadgets of questionable quality, many of which I own. Uh. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.720 So I wanted to talk a little bit about how 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.360 the kitchen is kind of this this gateway to home 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:30.800 automation and programmable appliances before we get into the concept 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:35.760 of robot chefs and AI getting involved in our food, 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.920 just to kind of illustrate how it's been changing, even 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.800 uh just recently. Oh sure, we take all of these 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.160 automated kitchen devices very much for granted. These days, you know, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.360 you're your coffee maker that you can program to go 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.240 off whenever you want coffee, uh, in anticipation of when 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.920 you're going to want coffee, but which is always. But 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.840 getting to this point has been kind of uckey. The 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.440 very first computer that was built for the kitchen was okay, 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.120 to be fair more of a marketing ploy than it 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.200 was a real product. But this was in nineteen sixty 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.480 nine and at the time even Jane Jetson's kitchen still 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:18.639 ran on punch cards. Uh. So to stir up publicity, 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.320 retailer Neiman Marcus paired up with technology innovator Honeywell to 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.000 promote a kitchen computer which would plan menus for you 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.760 based around a single main course. It also weighed about 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.600 a hundred pounds uh and was so large that it 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.080 came in the form of like a small kitchen island 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.920 with a cutting board and everything. Uh, it was it 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.040 was really a repackaged Honeywell three sixteen, which was a 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.240 sixteen bit mini computer. By mini computer, they meant smaller 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.640 than a room at the time, and and and these 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.000 things were commonly used in like commercial and industrial applications, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.600 So it was it was so complex to use that 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.160 the come but he has offered a complimentary two week 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.360 programming course to potential buyers. Like it had it had 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.960 no screen, It was just like a flashing light display. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:14.240 The communicated in binary code. So uh, only twenty were 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.400 ever produced, and those only after public interest was way 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.479 higher than they anticipated. It was basically it was like, hey, 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.159 talk about this thing that we might possibly do to 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.440 be fair Enow, this is an era where people were 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.960 really looking forward, like the home of the future, right, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.320 this this idea of everything is going to be easier 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.160 from now on because it's all going to be automated. 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.520 This is still a story we're telling today, but it's 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.480 obviously taken a lot longer than what we anticipated. So 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.320 I'm curious if back in those days, I wanted one 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.360 of these miraculous machines to grace my kitchen, how much 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.000 might I be expected to pay for such a thing. Well, 0:04:54.040 --> 0:05:01.440 it was priced at wow. Yes, but when you account 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.120 for inflation in today's dollars, that is worth sixty thousand, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:09.080 nine hundred and twenty five So so for the price 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:14.800 of just a couple of automobiles, Yeah, it's it's unlikely 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.960 that anywhere ever sold. Wow. That's pretty amazing. But you know, 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.279 obviously that was not just the beginning and the end 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.960 of this this you know trend in trying to create 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.560 automated devices for the kitchen. Oh sure, it would take 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.320 the level of miniaturization and the level of Internet access 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.240 that came along in the late eighties and early nineties 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:44.000 to really kick off the creation of inexpensive and actually 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:48.040 marketable devices that do not talk to you in binary code. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.760 The first touchscreen fridge, for example, debuted in from electric Lux, 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.200 and basically after that, we've been living in a in 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.800 a rush of kitchen tech. You know, I feel like 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.880 crowd fun ending websites are just chock full of kitchen 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.640 gadgets people are trying to fund, like immersion cookers, that 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:09.880 kind of thing. I mean, I remember seeing that, like 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:14.560 for suvied type approach. I've been seeing those crowdfunded for 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.479 a while, but all sorts of kitchen gadgets are up there. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.800 And uh, I mean I think of like when you're 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.400 thinking about the the the history of automation in the kitchen, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.719 things like dishwashers obviously spring to mine, and coffee coffee makers, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.960 like we were saying earlier, and also things like bread makers. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.480 I mean, I remember when bread makers really became a thing. Yeah, 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.599 my parents got one when I was a kid, and 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:43.920 I remember, I remember it being an extremely long, laborious 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.480 process to make, even with the bread makers. But if 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.120 you if you were doing something like putting the ingredients 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.200 in the morning and starting it off and then just 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.360 letting it go, then by evening you had a fresh 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.159 baked loaf of bread. The house smelled of bread. This 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.800 was a miracle machine as far as I was concerned, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.479 because my mom makes amazing homemade bread, but because doing 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.240 it by hand is even more laborious than using a 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.560 bread maker, it was so infrequent that this went that 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.200 we actually got to have it more often, which in 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.440 my mind was amazing. Yeah. So some of the things 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.040 I wanted to mention before we get into the robots stuff, 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:24.200 just some some more examples of uh technology that's becoming 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:29.040 available now, stuff that that general automated cooking gadget. Yeah, 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.560 things that have debuted at c e S recently that 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.840 kind of stuff. One was the Rodi Matic. I love 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.360 the name already, but it's an automatic Rodi cooker. So 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.480 you can get like r O T I R O 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.119 T I h the Indian pancake type of thing. Yeah, 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.560 so you just load the ingredients. They have these different 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.000 canisters that hold the various ingredients so that they mixed 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:53.040 them in the proper proportions and and uh you then 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.520 said it and it cooks about one per minute. So uh, 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.200 if I had more room in my kitchen, I would 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.040 get one of these because I think that is amazing. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.080 But I think my wife would kill me. I'm the 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.200 cook in our family, by the way, so to me, like, 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:10.920 these are the things that appeal to me, And then 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.240 I think I don't have physical space for it, so 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.040 it's hard for me to justify purchasing it. Um the 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.960 Smarter coffee maker. Uh, this is one of those things 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.240 that you you wouldn't really think you needed until you 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.320 see it, and then you think, but I don't understand 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.640 the appeal what's the deal. So the smarter coffee maker 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.920 goes beyond programming, like we're used to the programmable coffee 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:34.640 makers at this point. If you have one of those, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:36.200 then you can you know, you load it up and 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.439 you say, all right, at at six thirty in the morning, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.079 start brewing my cup of coffee. So that way I 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:41.760 have it as soon as I get up and come 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.199 downstairs or whatever. The smarter coffee maker goes beyond that. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.640 You can actually access it through an app. So you 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.120 use your app to tell your coffee maker exactly how 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:53.760 much coffee you want to make, so if you want 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:55.680 a big cup of coffee, you say, use this much 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.760 water versus that much water. Um. It also will keep 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.520 track of how many beans are still in the coffee maker, 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.199 so when it gets low, you can reload it add 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.080 more beans to it. So uh, kind of an Internet 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.160 of things approach to making coffee. There was the x 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.920 y Z printing three D food printer which was shown 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.520 at c e S that was capable of using sweets 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.360 ort of cookie dough and printing it in different shapes. 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.920 So not quite the three D printer that makes a pizza, 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.679 but one that could make you know Christmas cookies if 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.240 you wanted or whatever shape cookies you wanted. Uh. So, 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:33.920 I don't know how many people would actually get one 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.640 of those. Again, like my immediate responses, I totally don't 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.160 need that, but I totally kind of want one. Uh 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.040 There was the Pico brew Zymatic, which is an automated 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.520 beer brewing device. It takes four four hours to brew 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:51.080 an unfermented beer. I looked I saw your note on this, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:56.040 and I was like, an unfermented beer fermentation the point 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.840 of beer. Yeah, it is, no, So the unfermented beer 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.520 is not what you drink, and so it'll make this 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:03.960 and then you can ferment it and then you can 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.000 have beer. Because I was thinking what would that be like, 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.679 I'm sure it would be gross. I don't think they're 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.120 suggesting you drink it at this stage. En Fermented beer 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.200 is called wart wart with an o wart word. I 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:16.800 don't know how you say it. I guess it's just 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.480 we're saying like one of the crunts from Halo. I 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.880 don't know what you're talking about, not a Halo player anyway, 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.319 but it's this this sugary grain based liquid that becomes 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.000 beer through the process fermentation, Right, so this would be 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.720 something that would speed up that process and automated so 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.000 that you don't have to have the same level of 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.600 um you don't have to babysit it as much. Right, 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.680 that's the that's the big thing, until you get to 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.440 the fermentation stage, which obviously would go outside of this 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.920 this device. Yeah, I was reading a little bit about 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.080 it and it said that the main appeal of this 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.560 thing is if you want to be able to experiment 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.800 with a lot of different recipes with very precise measurements. Also, 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.839 it appeals to pete who live in a place where 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.760 they might not have a lot of space to do 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.320 this kind of stuff on their own. Uh So, people 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.000 who might live in an apartment or a townhouse where 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.079 they don't have like a big garage or something. It 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.400 was very appealing for those folks as well. Whirlpool went 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.320 bonkers at c S and showed off a fully interconnected 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.600 kitchen with all the different appliances able to talk to 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.720 all the other different appliances. It even included an interactive 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.360 backsplash so you could get like recipes printed on your 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.080 backsplash while you're working on stuff, and cook tops that 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.320 could actually link to your social media profiles. So if 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.480 you wanted, if you wanted to take the step out 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.320 of tweeting what it is you're having for dinner, Jonathan 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:44.360 Strickland is using medium high heat exactly. I can't say 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.600 that I immediately recognized the appeal, but it certainly was 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:52.000 built into it. People are very fond of, you know, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.960 posting their dinner. That's true social media, that's true. And 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.120 you know, if you if you're doing that three times 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.800 day every day, it just wears out your type and thumb, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.800 you know. I feel like people are more fond of 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.040 posting their brunch or lunch rather than dinner. Maybe I'm wrong. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.880 I think it depends on where you're eating, if you're 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.840 eating at home, um like a weekend to brunch or lunch. 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.000 I'm sure there's their statistics out there for this big 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.400 data get back to us. Yeah. I think it probably 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.280 also would give you an indication of how well someone's 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.520 date is going based upon the number and frequency of 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.839 food related tweets you see from that person. Okay, Jonathan, Sorry, 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.800 everything you've said so far, I'm unimpressed. I want a 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:41.600 robot or cyborg type organism or machine that cooks for me. Well, 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.480 I have some good news for you, Joe. They're top people. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.640 I always want to see top men because that's the raiders. 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.240 Come on, let's be fair. There are tough. In fact, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.440 one of the people who is behind one of the 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.520 robots chefs I'm gonna talk about is an eighteen year 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.520 old lady and she really impressed me because I got 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.000 to meet her in person on an airplane on the 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.720 way to see es. But so, why don't we have 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.280 robot cooks? Well, I mean that's that could be asked 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:18.240 about almost anything where. Why don't we have robot butler's. Yeah, well, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.240 why don't we? I mean, that's a good question, and 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.000 the answer is, actually, I think fairly similar because these 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:28.400 jobs require all kinds of versatility, of movement and recognition, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:33.040 you know, multiple different types of artificial intelligence converging on 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.480 a task. That can become pretty intuitive to us. But 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.640 think about all the different types of AI it needs. 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.360 It needs spatial awareness and manipulating objects and visually recognizing 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.360 things and understanding what tastes are. I mean a lot 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:53.240 of manual dexterity. Yeah, yeah, it is incredibly complicated, but 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:57.080 that hasn't stopped various people from trying to create types 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.280 of robots that would help with cooking. So you know, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.400 we've already talked about some automated devices that are you 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.360 could think of them almost like robots. Uh. And they 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.920 certainly have some functions that are are similar to robotic functions, 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.520 but they're very very specific in there the tasks they 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.960 can do, which not a big surprise, right, because when 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.440 we talk about robots, that's that tends to be the case. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.240 We talk about people designing robots for very specific tasks. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.680 That's way easier than designing a robot for general tasks. 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.680 So one of those companies is called a Serenity Kitchen. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:34.240 Serenity is spelled s e r e n e t I. Uh. Yeah, 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.560 I keep on and calling calling it a sereneti kitgenimate 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.320 Serenity Kitchen. This is this is the group that I 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.960 got to meet on an airplane trip to c e S. 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.240 I was flying in the very back of a plane 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.240 and the road immediately ahead of me were the people 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.920 from Serenity Kitchen, which was three young students, uh, one 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.720 of whom was the person who came up with the idea. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.120 She was the brains behind the concept. And it is 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.120 a brilliant concept. So the basic idea was that you 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.440 have a essentially a cooking surface and a robotic arm 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.560 mounted above the cooking surface, and the robotic arm could 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.960 create a stirring motion to stir whatever was in a 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.840 pan that's on top of that cooking service. So you 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.000 would put ingredients into the pan, the robot arm would 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.800 continuously stir it until the food is done, and that 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.920 way you wouldn't have to babysit stir. Yeah. Yeah, oh 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.800 that's just just the application for making a ru Yeah, exactly, yeah, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.880 something like that. Now they were looking they were actually 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.400 using it to show off things like pad tai. Uh. 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.160 They were showing a lot of Eastern dishes and they said, well, 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.440 we also have applied this for Western dishes like a 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.920 you know, if you want to make a spaghetti or whatever. 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.440 And they said, really, the first target audience, we're looking 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.560 at our college students, people who would maybe go and 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.640 buy a cheap microwave dinner, which typically doesn't taste very 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.560 good and usually isn't very good for you. So what 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.120 if you would create a device that would make uh, 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.600 the the healthy food for you. You You know, you're just 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.040 dumped the ingredients into whatever and it would do the 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.760 rest of the work because college students are lazy, and 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.680 it would allow them to to not have to put 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:16.200 forth that kind of effort and they would get the 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.160 benefit of a healthy dinner h cooked for them. And 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:24.920 the brilliant part of their approach was that their plan 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.440 wasn't to sell expensive robot cooks. Uh. They were actually 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.360 looking at using the robot cook is sort of a 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.920 lost leader the same way that video game consoles come out. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.920 That's immediately what I thought of, like that they you know, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.160 they're not making a lot of money selling you a 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.880 PlayStation for something. They're hoping that you're they're going to 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.800 make it back and you're buying games, right, so instead 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.600 of games, we're talking about meals. So they actually compared 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.080 it to curig, which makes sense, the coffee maker that 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.440 uses the little pods. They said, well, you know, you 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.560 could buy this this device, Uh, if you wanted to 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.000 buy it out right, you could, but would cost somewhere 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.720 around the neighborhood of five nine U s dollars. It's 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.760 pretty expensive, you know for something that would not be 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.960 a direct replacement for a large appliance in your kitchen. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.440 But they had a subscription plan where you can subscribe 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.479 to a service that would send you the ingredients for 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.560 ten meals a month for three years. So it's a 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.840 three year commitment, and then the robot would cost just 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.400 ninety nine dollars. The subscription would be fifty dollars a month, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:31.120 and that sounds like a lot at first, but then 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:33.200 when you figure weight, it's ten meals in a month. 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.720 That's five bucks a meal. That's a fast food meal 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.640 right there, but you're getting fresh ingredients. So the idea 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:42.800 being that, uh, you know, this would be a way 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.720 to get people locked into a system where they would 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.360 get the delivery ten meals a month. They'd be able 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.120 to use this. They could use it for other things too, 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.040 if they had the ingredients on hand, but these would 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.639 be things that robot would be specifically programmed to handle. 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.800 So you put the ingredients in either directly in the 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.320 p in or their actual plan has a robot that 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.159 would have trays and you put the ingredients into the 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.920 the individual trays according to the directions of the recipe, 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.200 and then the robot would add the ingredients as needed 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.920 in the process of making that. After two minutes of 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.879 sauteing the onions, then you put in the carrots, and 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.440 then you put in the meat and then right exactly. Yeah, 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.159 So that way you you cook the various ingredients the 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.080 right amount of time so that it's the right consistency, texture, 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.320 nutritional value, all that kind of stuff. And I thought 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.639 this was brilliant. I thought that their business plan really 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.879 appealed to me because you could tell they got it. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.720 They it was a very uh, innovative approach, not just hey, 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.280 we'll sell them the equipment, more like, hey, we'll sell 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.440 the equipment at a big discount, but will really make 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.120 the money on the food part. And as long as 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.639 the food is good and the robot does what it's 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.600 supposed to do, then that's a great business plan. So 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.000 if you look at the images of what it actually 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.080 the working model they brought to see, yes, what it 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.680 looked like, and then you look at the mock ups 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.359 of what they wanted to look like when it's an 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.680 actual consumer product, it's miles apart. But that makes sense 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:15.160 because it's a prototype versus what would be the finished product. Uh. 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.639 But you know, they did launch an indie go go campaign, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:19.640 which they ended early. I think they ended it after 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.080 four days. Uh, And the reason they did was They 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.359 said they got a lot of feedback that they thought 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.120 was helpful and they wanted to incorporate in the design, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.800 but they didn't feel like continuing with the indie go 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.520 go campaign would reflect that. So they ended in and 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.960 said we're gonna come back in a few months with 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.480 a new design based upon the feedback we're receiving. Um. 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.440 They also were talking about that it would be great 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:43.360 in the future if the robot could do more than 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.920 just you know, essentially it's just adding ingredients and stirring um. 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.400 If it could do more than that, like do more 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:57.000 of the prep work or or you know work, or 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.680 maybe maybe even something a little more simple, like being 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.200 able flip over an omelet or something. Because as opposed 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.760 to just stirring um. So that was really interesting to me. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:08.520 And like I said, I was really impressed by their 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.600 their ingenuity, uh and really their business plan. It was 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.800 beyond just the technology, which was already interesting, but the 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.560 idea that they were like, well, convincing people to buy 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.720 an expensive robot is kind of a no win approach, 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.720 Like it's you know, unless you are just you know, 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.240 determined to go after a very niche audience, you're not 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.879 really gonna make a lot of sales that way. But 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.320 then we can look at a different one, a different 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.520 approach that doesn't really concern itself too much with making 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.159 affordable robots. Yeah. Yeah, let's let's say that that we 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.320 are still or that Joe at the very least is 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.879 still deeply unimpressed like this entire plan. Like he he 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.240 needs something that's going to do way more work than 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.720 just stirring the food. And he says, you know those 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.119 kids over at Sertainity, they're they're great and all, but 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.879 I need I need a heavy duty robo chef, not 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.439 just a cook. I need a chef. I want arms 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.119 that operate on a rail above the stove encounter. Well, 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:10.520 I have news for you, my friend, Moly Robotics. It's 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.200 a London based company that created a robo chef. It's 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:15.680 more advanced than the cookie concept. Cookie, by the way, 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.280 is the name of the robot from Serenity Kitchen. Uh 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.040 so it actually incorporates learning algorithms, or at least the 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.119 end product is supposed to, meaning that you can show 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:28.720 the robot how to make something and then it will 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.440 then be able to make it. You know, repeat that 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.160 that process and make that thing for you in the future. Yeah, 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.800 so I watched a demonstration video of this robot trying. 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:41.560 I think it was making some crab bisk. I'm not positive, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.399 but that's the impression I got because they mentioned crab 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.320 bisk and the soup looked kind of bisky. It took 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.560 a fresh crab and cracked it over the pot, crack 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:55.720 into fresh crab exactly. Uh no, but it was. It 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.000 was kind of like it was a pair of arms 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.560 that are hooked to a ray all over the stove 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:07.320 area and then yeah, moving back and forth, grabbing ingredients, 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.320 pouring them into the pot, stirring them up, adding things. 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:13.000 But but but how does it learn how to do 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.680 all of this? Well, the funny thing is it doesn't 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.280