Google is working on new Artifical Intelligence that will use "sophisticated deep learning algorithms" to analyse a still photograph of food and analyse how many calories are on the plate. The creepy technology is called Im2Calories. It identifies what kind of food it is, gauges the size of the food in relation to the plate as well as any condiments and then calculates the estimated calorie count.
Creator Kevin Murphy has insisted that the aim of this technology isn't to shame people about how many calories they are eating, but to enable people to keep a "food diary".
However, this AI can't be as accurate as looking on packets or looking on websites to see how many calories you're eating; all it can do is provide a rough estimate. If people actually wanted to count their calories, they could just use traditional methods. Every person in the world Instagrams food – is this AI gonna take all the fun out of it?
Hopefully Im2Calories this won't increase anxiety about food. Is Instagram is really the best place to analyse food in a scientific and fastidious way anyway? Isn't it just a place where we post photos of sick burgers? Putting a calorie counter on every ingredient on the plate seems like a total killjoy.
