World’s First AI Chef Lands on Indiegogo With 1000+ Dish Library
What if your microwave oven could identify the ingredients and cook a meal for you automatically? That’s exactly what the wan AIChef Ultra is built to do. It’s not a microwave per se, but it’s a kitchen appliance of similar stature that has evolved out of its recognizable appearance to be an intelligent, adaptive cooking system.
It is billed as the world’s first chef that uses cameras to see, Nvidia chipset to think, and AI to cook the perfect dish from the ingredients presented to it.
The device was first introduced to the world in January earlier this year at CES in Vegas. Now it’s launching via an Indiegogo campaign, giving early backers some exciting rewards to claim their chef with artificial intelligence well before it hits the market.
The countertop-sized appliance is powered by Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano and is designed to replace “5+ kitchen appliances,” the company notes. You are simply required to load the ingredients in a dish. wan AIChef Ultra will recognize the ingredients, decide the probable dish, and cook you a restaurant-quality meal without human intervention at any stage.
The appliance can cook upward of 1,000 recipes including “Cheesy Toast in a Hole, Garlic Butter Shrimp, Butter Salmon, and Roast Chicken.” It can recreate flavors in your meal by steaming, roasting, baking, stir-frying, and pan-searing. You need Wi-Fi to connect to the recipes library on the system, though you can also access downloaded recipes even without Wi-Fi.
wan AIChef employs a microwave heating technique with precision temperature control to cook the meal. You get onboard a 12MP AI camera and Heimann Thermal Imaging technology, which recognizes the ingredients and tracks heat in real time. While AI makes the choice of the ideal cooking method for every dish automatically, the thermal imaging technology adjusts the cooking temperature according to the requirements of the ingredients to achieve the best taste and flavor.
The box-shaped appliance measures 572 × 480 × 430 mm externally, and its chamber is 332 × 310 × 369 mm. Roughly the size of a countertop microwave, the AIChef, with 35-liter capacity, is compatible with non-metal containers and dishes, such as those made from glass or ceramic. The company notes that certain microwave-safe plastics are also compatible.
wan AIChef Ultra, made to replace separate utensils for frying, roasting, baking, or steaming, is designed with convenience and safety in mind. It will be rolled out with a library of 1000+ dishes that you can make when it’s available. The company says that every month new recipes will be pushed into the database via OTA updates. The OTA updates can be turned off through the device settings if you don’t need new recipe updates and feature improvements.
As a user, you can be worried about what happens to all the cooking data you’re sharing with the appliance. All your cooking data, the company says, including your self-created recipes, stays private in the device and the accompanying app. Nothing is shared publicly.
Using the dedicated AIChef Ultra app, you can use the appliance to prepare meals tailored to your health as well. Just upload your fitness goal or family allergens, and the health data and your recipe preference will be analyzed to create a personalized 7-day meal plan. The appliance accepts feedback after every meal. Tap Perfect / Overcooked / Undercooked and the system will, the next time, adjust the taste and cooking to exactly how you like it.
Designed in a sleek finish in Slate Cliff Gray, Obsidian Black, Titanium Alloy Black, and Titanium Gray, the wan AIChef Ultra is available for a Super Early Bird price of $1,799. It’s almost a 55% saving on the retail price of $3,999.
