Janelle Shane (previously) is a delightful AI researcher who likes to use machine learning systems to produce absurd, inhuman outputs, such as a list of AI-created notional ice-cream flavors generated by merging a list of real ice-cream flavors with a list of metal band names and pressing “go.”
Aaron Cohen owns Gracie’s Ice Cream in Somerville, Mass. After taking a long look at Shane’s list of robotic ice-cream flavor ideas, he took a stab at operationalizing them by deciding how you’d actually make a flavor that went with the labels.
Ice-cream is the best thing in the world. AI ice-cream flavors are delightfully whimsical. Merge the two and you get the delightful, whimsical best thing in the world.
From the weirder list:
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Chocolate Finger – Chocolate ice cream, entire Butterfinger candy bars like you get at the rich houses on Halloween.
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Crackberry Pretzel – Salty black raspberry chip with chocolate covered pretzel.Worrying and ambiguous:
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Brown Crunch – Peanut butter Heath Bar.
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Sticky Crumple – Caramel and pulverized crumpets.
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Cookies and Green – Easy. Cookies and Cream with green dye.“Trendy-sounding ice cream flavors”:
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Lime Cardamom – Sounds like a sorbet, to be honest.
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Potato Chocolate Roasted – Sweet potato ice cream with chocolate swirl.
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Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Road – We make a chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookie dough called Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, so this isn’t much of a stretch. Just add chocolate covered almonds and we’re there.
Ask An Ice Cream Professional: AI-generated ice cream flavors [Aaron Cohen/Kottke]