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Welcome to the fifth edition of Aioli, the newsletter that demystifies AI, making it accessible for your daily life. I’m traveling this week in Texas for the solar eclipse on Monday, so this is a short-but-still-sweet burst of AI bites!

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TODAY’S SPREAD

•  🍌 AI Takes Aim at Tackling Food Waste

• 🤗 The tiny island nation that happens to be the center of the AI Boom

• 💼 This Week's Top ChatGPT Use Case

• 🖼️ AI-Generated Visual Wonder: Photos of the Week

 🍌 AI INNOVATION

AI Takes Aim at Tackling Food Waste

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2019, an estimated 66 million tons of wasted food was generated in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors in the United States, and most of this waste (about 60%) was sent to landfills.1 Additionally, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that between 30-40 percent of the entire food supply in the United States is wasted, equaling approximately 133 billion pounds and almost $162 billion worth of food.

Artificial intelligence is being leveraged to address the pervasive issue of food waste, with companies developing innovative solutions to reduce the amount of uneaten food that ends up in landfills, where it contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

Peeking into the Trash: Winnow, a company specializing in food waste reduction, has created an A.I. tool that uses cameras installed above garbage bins in restaurant kitchens to analyze discarded food. By identifying patterns in waste, such as oversized breakfast pastries or commonly unfinished dishes, restaurants can make informed decisions to minimize waste and boost profits.

Crunching Grocery Store Data: Afresh, another player in the food waste reduction space, utilizes AI to analyze supermarket sales data, identifying mismatches between stock levels and consumer purchasing habits. By providing precise recommendations on ordering quantities for specific products, like yellow onions or Easter eggs, Afresh helps grocery stores optimize their inventory and reduce waste.

Making Progress: Supermarket chains participating in the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment project have reported a 25% reduction in unsold food volumes between 2019 and 2022. These chains have also increased donations to charities and directed more waste to composting facilities instead of landfills.

The Bigger Picture: While AI offers promising solutions to food waste, it is essential to acknowledge that it cannot single-handedly change the expectations of abundance and variety ingrained in modern, industrial societies. Addressing food waste requires a multifaceted approach, including consumer education and changes in portion sizes at restaurants.

Having worked in the food industry for the past 10 years, addressing the food waste issue is near and dear to my heart. At Aioli, my AI consulting business, I am creating customized automations for food companies to help mitigate their food waste (and their food costs).

If your food or agriculture business can benefit from a custom AI solution, please reach out for an audit.

🤗 SOME GOOD NEWS

The tiny island nation that happens to be the center of the AI Boom

Anguilla, a tiny Caribbean nation with a population of just 16,000, hit the jackpot when it comes to domain names. While the United Kingdom has ".uk," China has ".cn," and Brazil has ".br," Anguilla was fortunate enough to be assigned ".ai" as its country code in the early days of the internet, a domain that has become highly sought-after by AI startups.

1. What’s happening?

* AI startups are eagerly purchasing ".ai" domains to showcase their products and services.

* Whenever a registry sells an address ending in ".ai," Anguilla receives a portion of the transaction.

* The country earns between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars per sale, as reported by the New York Times.

* These funds quickly add up, with Anguilla earning $32 million last year alone, equivalent to approximately 10% of its GDP.

Where's the money going? The unexpected windfall has significantly impacted the small nation, enabling it to recover more rapidly from a devastating hurricane in 2017, provide free healthcare to citizens aged 70 and above, and invest in infrastructure projects such as renovating its airport and sports facilities. Premier Ellis Webster described the situation, saying, "Some people call it a windfall. We just call it God smiling down on us."

What next? Looking ahead, Anguilla is likely to receive a similar amount of revenue this year as AI startups continue to snap up sites with the coveted ".ai" domain. In terms of domain-related income, Anguilla might even surpass Tuvalu, a Polynesian archipelago that earns around $10 million annually from its ".tv" domain.

💼 CHATGPT USE CASE OF THE WEEK

You can now use ChatGPT to edit parts of images

Looking to modify an image by altering or eliminating an object or person? Follow these steps using ChatGPT:

1. Open ChatGPT

2. Request that it creates an image for you

3. Once the image is generated, click on it and choose the edit option (as shown in the image above)

4. Select the specific region where you want the modification to be made

5. In the chat, describe the desired changes

6. Hit enter and allow the system to process the change

Please keep in mind that access to image generation and editing capabilities requires a ChatGPT Plus account.

🖼️ AI-Generated Photos of the Week

Scandinavian design inspired grocery store

I generated these in Midjourney with the prompt:

photorealistic image of grocery stores designed in scandanavian minimal clean aesthetic with japanese elements--stylize 600

Thanks for reading. Your curiosity fuels this journey.

Until next time!

Meg 👩🏻‍💻

p.s. if you want to sign up for this newsletter or share it with a friend or colleague, you can find us here. For questions and feedback, email me at [email protected] I want to know what topics you’d like me to cover in the future - send me your burning questions 🔥