The Grapevine

AI and Matters of (Wine) Taste

April 24th, 2018

There’s no accounting for taste, or so the saying goes. Which would make you think that standardizing our, um, standards, would be a good thing. But I bet you’re not going to like where this story of wine tastemaking is going … [level-members]

MIT Grads Invent Algorithm and Quiz To Pick Your Next Bottle Of Wine

It’s easy to pick on these guys because they look young enough to not yet be shaving and the whole tech-geek stereotype, but as AI improves we’ll see more applications like this and, quite probably, an improvement in their ability to learn someone’s preferences. Netflix is already doing a pretty good job of this with movies – though don’t count on it if you share a an account with, say, a muscle-car loving teenage boy, daughters who favor rom-coms, and a wife who loves documentaries …

The question for us as shop owners is how to keep our edge as the original AI – you have to make it clear that you’re paying attention to your customers and their preferences. You have to ask what they liked and didn’t from the last case you sold them. Otherwise, they’re going to find an app like this and order from Amazon.

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