IBM's Chef Watson shares his culinary artifcial intelligence

NEW YORK, June 24 (UPI) -- Watson is IBM's super-smart computer that out-competed human champion Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!. Chef Watson has the same artificial intelligence, but with a foodie bent.

Now, Chef Watson's culinary genius is available to the public in app form -- a collaborative project between IBM and Bon Appetit. After a year in beta testing, the technology is ready for the big time.

Type in a few ingredients as a starting point and Watson will spit out a list of edible possibilities, completed with an ingredients list, measuring suggestions and preparation guidelines.

Chef Watson's algorithmic brain relies on a database filled with recipes, as well as data on flavor profiles, ingredients, and the interplay between taste and psychology.

Watson's brain power can be harnessed using a variety of filters. Users can limit the creative possibilities to various styles of food, and also make dietary demands like "no gluten."

"Chef Watson demonstrates how smart machines can help people explore the world around them and discover new possibilities and new ways of getting things done, whether it's finding promising treatment pathways to fight diseases or helping law firms build courtroom strategies by discovering connections between their cases and earlier precedents," IBM Chief Storyteller Stephen Hamm wrote in a blog post.

But not all of Watson's suggestions are ideal.

"It's not perfect," Watson Group Director Steve Abrams acknowledged to Wired. "It doesn't know every chemical reaction when you cook, so there's definitely a role to be played by the human being."

But even when Watson makes a seemingly erroneous suggestion -- like recommending nuts in a punch -- there's culinary logic to be traced. A few weeks after the failed tip, Bon Appetit's digital director Stacey Rivera recalled seeing a cocktail sweetened with walnut syrup.

Its creators say Watson isn't meant to produce flawless recipes, at least not yet. The intention isn't to be exact or literal, but to help home chefs think creatively and take ingredients in new and adventurous directions.

"The thing that Watson does is force us to think outside of what we think things mean in terms of food," Rivera said. "It challenges us to not be so specific about what nuts mean."