These days, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Whether it's generating a deepfake, driving a car, or waxing poetic on which fast food restaurant has the best burger, it's hard to avoid the applications of this technology. Now, it may arrive in one of the most shocking places yet: the kitchen.

Startup CloudChef plans to revolutionize the restaurant industry with AI. Its technology aims to make anything from the world-class dishes of Michelin-starred chefs to TikTok trends to even a recipe from someone's grandmother accessible to all. CloudChef provides more than just a detailed recipe: It claims to be capable of distilling and digitally transmitting a master chef's technique and intuition. This could bring dishes from the kitchen of a white-tablecloth restaurant, or the mind of a chef, to places and audiences that might not normally see them. Imagine a world in which an untrained worker in Idaho, for example, prepares a dish designed by a famous Italian chef, and it turns out just how the chef intended.

CloudChef uses "co-botting," a term referencing collaborative robots, which require human assistance to complete tasks. However, it acts as both brain and nervous system for the kitchen. Rather than simply providing guidance to amateur chefs with little or no training, it automates things, like the process of checking if a sauce or a piece of meat is done using temperature monitoring. CloudChef can control appliances as well, which may leave some wondering how long until it takes over the restaurant kitchen entirely.

Technology in the kitchen has been growing at a breakneck pace. Since COVID accelerated the growth of ghost kitchens, innovations like Grubtech's Cloud Kitchen and automated delivery become more omnipresent each year. A race for automation that promotes efficiency and ease of restaurant operations is understandable, though some fear the downsides.

Aside from CloudChef's latest splash, AI has already started to penetrate the food service industry in less flashy ways. For example, conversational AI may be coming to a drive-thru near you, promising a fix for long wait times, order mistakes, and labor shortages. Fast food restaurants are also learning to predict your order using everything from face recognition to eating habits. In the home kitchen, things are advancing even more quickly. Samsung's "Food AI" suggests recipes by monitoring the ingredients you have in your fridge, dietary restrictions, and the weather. Fully smart kitchens and robotic kitchens that can both cook and clean are well on their way too.

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