Deep Liquid: ‘Democratising’ AI one beverage at a time

‘Democratising’ AI, or making it more accessible and usable to a wide range of people regardless of their technical expertise, sounds like a heavy topic for a serious tool. But one company is utilising serious AI technology in a lighter – not to mention more delicious – way.

Deep Liquid, an Adelaide-based company, is using generative AI and machine learning (ML) to provide “personalised flavour preferences” to consumers.

“Deep Liquid’s mission is to provide a safe and transparent model for equitable AI in the personalised food and beverage sector,” said Deep Liquid’s CEO and Founder, Denham D’silva. “We give customers the ability to create personalised health drinks on demand via our AI vending machine.” 

“Customers are able to use their preference to feed our AI the data required to create a beverage to aid their health and wellness goals.”

Deep Liquid began its operations in 2020 when D'Silva collaborated with AIML to utilise AI in his craft brewery, Barossa Valley Brewing, to create beverages based on customer tastes. The company has deep ties to AIML with AIML Chief Scientist Professor Anton van den Hengel listed as a founder and current AIML Director Professor Simon Lucey serving as an Advisor. Dr. Jamie Sherrah, an AIML Adjunct member, is the company’s Chief Technology Officer. 

“Our personalised drinks will benefit… fitness conscious people who are making a big effort to improve their health, physique and lifestyle,” said Sherrah. “People… are taking a lot of pre- and post-workout supplements to improve their results. [But] these supplements are one-size-fits-all, and it takes quite a bit of research to work out what you need to take [and] when.”

“With our app, we can make it easier for consumers to co-ordinate these supplements by asking questions about their goals, needs and activities, using AI to then co-ordinate the right supplements delivered at the right time. Then our machine can fix them a pre- or post-workout drink to meet their needs.” 

Though initially creating custom-made, AI-generated beer, Deep Liquid shifted focus last year to incorporate healthier options in order to tap into the burgeoning Australian health and wellness industry. The company is validating the technology initially in the health and fitness space before making it available to the entire food and beverage industry.

“Customers are able to use their preference to feed our AI the data required to create a beverage to aid their health and wellness goals,” said D’silva. “[And] our business case is not limited to creating protein drinks.  It is a starting point to validate the ability for ML and mass spectrometry (MS) to identify patterns in consumers.”

“We are redefining wellness personification.”   

In addition to supporting a customer’s current nutritional needs, the data shared between the customer and the app allow for beverages to adapt to a customer’s changing tastes or nutritional requirements. And the company is determined to ensure that customers control how much information they share and what happens to it.

“We are committed to safe and equitable data and AI usage,” said D’Silva. “[Right now, Deep Liquid] is early and tiny, but this a powerful example of a local small-to-medium enterprise disrupting a valuable space with local tech that captures data and deploys analysis, locally.”

“[We are] a wonderful example of home-grown disruption, data sovereignty, and security.”