Can AI Actually Smell? The Science of Osmo | Alex Wiltschko
In this episode, Alex Wiltschko, founder and CEO of Osmo, joins the show to discuss his goal of giving computers a sense of smell and what it takes to build olfactory intelligence. We explore the science behind smell, from the hundreds of olfactory receptors in the human nose to the challenge of mapping the relationship between molecular structure and odor, ensuring safety regulations are met, and building foundation models for smell. Alex explains how graph neural networks and advanced embedding spaces allow AI to capture the multi-dimensional structure of scents, grouping them into perceptual neighborhoods, and creating a machine learning representation that predicts how molecules smell. We also cover how Osmo built the largest proprietary olfactory dataset from scratch to train a fleet of predictive models, and how olfactory intelligence could eventually power applications far beyond fragrance, including disease detection, emotion sensing, and consumer devices. 🗒️ Full show notes: https://twimlai.com/go/771. 🔔 Subscribe to our channel for more great content just like this: https://youtube.com/twimlai?sub_confirmation=1 📖 CHAPTERS =============================== 00:00 - Background 01:52 - Digitizing smell 04:41 - Sense of smell: olfactory sensory neurons, olfactory epithelium, and olfactory receptors 07:08 - How powerful is the human nose? 09:09 - Structure-odor relation problem 12:56 - Nodes and edges of graph neural net 14:22 - Principal odor map 16:41 - Examples 19:13 - Collecting olfactory dataset 23:13 - Regulatory review 24:14 - Manufacturing scents 28:37 - Multimodal embedding and scent generation 33:01 - Similarity of olfactory intelligence with autonomous vehicles 38:14 - Relationship between taste and smell 40:06 - Building olfactory foundation models and future in medical detection 48:14 - "Nose on a chip" 49:35 - Future consumer applications 53:34 - Scent unlocking emotions and aromatic traditions 🗣️ CONNECT WITH US! =============================== Subscribe to the TWIML AI Podcast: https://twimlai.com/podcast/twimlai/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/twimlai Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/twimlai/ Join our Slack Community: https://twimlai.com/community/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://twimlai.com/newsletter/ Want to get in touch? Send us a message: https://twimlai.com/contact/