IBM's supercomputer wrote a cookbook, and it's coming out next week
The book, "Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson," is a collaboration between IBM's Watson and the Institute of Culinary Education that goes on sale April 14.
But this is far from an ordinary cookbook. This will be the first cookbook that's co-created by computer algorithms.
Around three years ago, IBM began building an "idea-generating tool" for Watson, which would let the supercomputer tap into its massive data trove to create new and interesting ideas and suggestions. IBM immediately thought food would be a great category for Watson to innovate, since everyone eats and there are literally countless combinations of meals and flavors.
According to the book, IBM taught Watson all about existing food dishes so it could learn how flavors and food chemicals interact, combine and contrast. It also learned about cultural preferences for certain foods and flavors, and it also learned about nutrition.
Once it had enough data, Watson began spewing out combinations of ingredients, which the Institute of Culinary Education helped convert those ideas into real dishes used in the book.
Watson came up with thousands of recipes but eventually narrowed down the options to 100; the book only contains 65 different recipes, which are sorted by preferences and dietary constraints, but CNN Money says IBM might have more recipes and Watson cookbooks on the way.
You can pre-order the book here.