#155 Alex Wiltschko: From Molecules to Memories & The AI Approach to Scent Detection

This episode is sponsored by Celonis, the global leader in process mining. AI has landed and enterprises are adapting. To give customers’ slick experiences and teams the technology to deliver. The road is long, but you’re closer than you think. Your business processes run through systems. Creating data at every step. Celonis reconstructs this data to generate Process Intelligence. A common business language. So AI knows how your business flows. Across every department, every system and every process. With AI solutions powered by Celonis enterprises get faster, more accurate insights. A new level of automation potential. And a step change in productivity, performance and customer satisfaction Process Intelligence is the missing piece in the AI Enabled tech stack. Go to https://celonis.com/eyeonai to find out more. Explore the world of scent detection and creation with our special guest, Alex Wiltschko, Founder and CEO of Osmo. Alex is giving computers a sense of smell to improve the health and happiness of human life. From discussing the complexities of mapping smell using artificial intelligence to the lexicon used by perfumers to standardize their work, Alex takes us on a scented journey that’s bound to whet your olfactory appetite. You’ll be intrigued by how olfactory sensory neurons express 350 distinct channels of information and how AI can predict smells based on the molecular structure. Alex shares his insights about a unique project they’ve been working on with the Gates Foundation to create molecules that smell good to humans but repel insects. We dive into the prospect of finding safe, affordable, and great smelling molecules via AI, and how this can have a profound impact on products we use every day. Finally, we shift the conversation to the use of large language models in creating natural language interfaces. Alex shares how Osmo is using AI to ‘open the window of computation to smells’ and how this technology can potentially make us healthier and happier.   Craig Smith's Twitter: https://twitter.com/craigss   (00:00) Preview (00:30) Celonis Sponsorship & introduction (03:30) Alex's Interest in Neuroscience and Scents  (05:20) The Neuroscience of Wine Tasting  (14:25) Mapping Smell With Artificial Intelligence (18:05) How AI Integrates with Smell & Molecules  (21:43) Perfumers' Language Dictionary and Taxonomy (25:20) Completing the Double Blind Test For Scent  (34:05) Discovering Safe and Effective Fragrance Molecules (44:23) The Future of Fragrance Technology (54:48) Large Language Models in Natural Language Interfaces