A Chilean food company is using artificial intelligence to help save endangered sea turtles.
Why it matters: Green sea turtles are an endangered species, having lost 90% of their population in the past 50 years.
State of play: NotCo, a food tech company for plant-based alternatives, has been using an AI program developed in-house to analyze plant flavors and find recipes that emulate the taste of dairy and meat products.
- Last week, the company shared the first of its recipes focused on substituting an endangered species.
- The recipe uses plant-based foods instead of green sea turtle meat for sopa de tortuga, a popular dish in some coastal areas of Latin America and Asia.
- Peruvian chef Diego Oka, who is based in San Francisco, gave the AI the prompt for the recipe and then fine-tuned it over the course of two weeks.
What they're saying: "If it only takes that long to replicate the flavor by matching humans with technology, this isn't just an alternative to using an endangered species — it shows the world we can do so much more," the company said in a statement.
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