This Robot May Be Perfect for Lazy People Who Hate Cooking A U.K.-based startup has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a machine with arms that learns recipes.
By Stephen J. Bronner Edited by Dan Bova
I feel like an anomaly among my fellow New York millennials in that I actually enjoy cooking my own meals. For many people, it's always, "I never have time," which usually means a leftover salad that's now wilted, lunch from the place downstairs or a Seamless delivery.
I take pride in the fact that I can feed myself healthy meals, and it's actually helped in my dating life, too.
And just like that, robots are out to ruin another thing for me.
U.K.-based Moley Robotics today opened a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign seeking about $1.2 million for its robot kitchen, an artificial intelligence-powered device that apparently learns recipes. It has a pair of eery hands and even cleans up! Moley has raised about 41 percent of its goal at the time of this story's publication.
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"Imagine someone like Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver cooking for you in your kitchen. Imagine dishes from Top Michelin Restaurants cooked in front of you to the highest standard, not in your kitchen, but by your kitchen," a Moley press release teases. "Thanks to artificial intelligence, it can mimic the actions of a master chef precisely, bringing a variety of delicious dishes, cooked to the highest of standards in a domestic kitchen."
Get your cold, robot fingers off my spatula!
We all know that robots don't have emotions, and that the most important ingredient in any meal is love. (At least that's what my mother would have me believe. I'm pretty sure her main ingredient is salt.)
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But wait, maybe technology isn't so bad after all. Maybe Moley (the company hopes to release a production prototype model in 2018) will be just another tool to give us humans more time to focus on other things, such as building businesses or developing more robots to free us from other tasks we no longer want or need to do.
"Imagine you are buying a flat and the option is to have a regular kitchen or a robotic kitchen -- it is clear which option you would choose," Moley founder Mark Oleynik said in the release. "The success of our prototype makes us very excited. The future is very near."
Wait, this thing does dishes? Sold!