• orclev@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have so many questions, none of which are answered by the article. Was the flavor really picked by an AI? If so, how did they train the AI? What kind of AI was this? What other flavors did it come up with? Did they try a bunch of them and this was the best one they could get?

    This whole thing just screams marketing stunt to me, and not a particularly good one. I can’t wait for this whole AI thing to just die out already. How is it that every tech fad seems to somehow end up being even dumber than the previous one (although I think the whole NFT thing might have set a new low bar)?

    • 📛Maven@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      It’s just the latest in a long line of experimental, conceptual Coke flavours. Honestly, it’s something I’ve been saying for years; stop being constrained by imitating “real” flavours and let the flavour scientists loose, let 'em go nuts.

      So far they’ve done:
      Space (I liked that, hints of toasted carmel and raspberries)
      Dream (Also good, a little bubblegummy, a little cotton candy-y, a little mangolike)
      Transformation (Awful, like coke with coconut oil and a hint of turpentine)
      Byte (Just decent, kind of indescribable)
      Pixel (I never got to try it, it was US only, but by all descriptions it wasn’t great)
      Movement (A bit like theatre butter and cinnamon, it was okay but wasn’t a fan)

      And now AI flavour. I plan to give it a shot, but I don’t expect much after their last two Tech-y flavours were eh.

      • smollittlefrog@lemdro.id
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        1 year ago

        Where do you get all these Coca Cola flavours? I’m in Germany and have only ever seen vanilla, lemon, cherry and life (next to the default, light and zero).

        • 📛Maven@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          I get them at my normal grocery store (in Canada). They’re limited time, they rotate in and out, so maybe you just missed them, or maybe they’re an NA thing.

          • 📛Maven@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Life is their Stevia brand. How it tastes depends on how stevia tastes to you; like cilantro, it’s got a genetic component.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I tried the XP flavored coke that is marketed towards gamers and I couldn’t really tell a difference between it and Coca-Cola Classic™. Maybe it has a slightly bit more licoricish flavor? I couldn’t tell because I was too busy leveling up with all of the XP I was gaining while drinking it.

      • alternative_factor@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You’re totally right, everyone knows that blue has been one of the best flavors for a long time, yet most companies are scared because blue “isn’t real”.

      • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I loved Starlight and dream. Both were the kinda things that I wouldn’t want every drink to be like, but wow were they cool to try out and I’d absolutely try any experimental flavours I see because of that.

        I wasn’t aware of most of the others though. I think these can be harder to find in some places. Most of the ones I’ve had were from 7-11s or similar convenience stores, but I don’t usually even go to such places.

      • Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        I always try the other flavors, but can’t say I’ve liked any of them. The AI one was probably the worst of them though.

      • son_named_bort@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve tried most of those. The first one, which was called starlight in the states, was the best one so far. The others haven’t been as good. The new AI one is probably the one I’ve liked the most since starlight.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Mountain Dew seems to have been leaning into that, and it’s mostly been good. I don’t know what their latest Halloween mystery flavor is supposed to be. It’s certainly nothing natural. But I like it.

      • maaj@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The AI flavor isn’t terrible, there’s some sort of berry twang to it with a metallic finish.

        • ripcord@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          with a metallic finish.

          I mean, that SOUNDS kinda terrible.

          …just the kind of flavor that a computer would enjoy though. Hmmmmmm…

          • maaj@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Oh it’s downright odd, but the sugar makes it… moderately okay? Idk, I’ve purposely bought it twice and I think it’s because I can’t quite put my finger on wtf is going on with it.

    • walrusintraining@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They probably trained it using data from their Coca-Cola freestyle dispensers if you’ve used one. That’s my guess.

    • Chriszz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The answer is simple. They’re using blockchain NFTs to reach new market growth using AI to provide flavor solutions to consumers

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      The press release they link to is not especially forthcoming with information either and all they can get in terms of details is from that press release and tasting it themselves.

    • gregorum@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      “Unsurprisingly, ‘Diarrhea Sasquatch Xtreme’ hit the mark yet failed to wow test groups,” is likely one of many test flavors removed from the article for PR reasons.

          • Sasquatch@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Per an early draft of the Proverbia Grecorum:

            Non spernas Sasquatch in visu neque despicias staturam eius; brevis est enim apis in volatilibus caeli et fructum illius primatus dulcidinis.

            Or, if your latin is rusty:

            Do not scorn the Sasquatch on sight, nor despise its stature; for the bee is short among the birds of the sky, and the fruit of that primacy is sweet.

    • ripcord@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I’m guessing it was as as much an “AI” thing as everything was “i-something” about 20 years ago, or a bunch of stuff, even video game consoles, were the “something something computer” 40 years ago

    • Chreutz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, on the label of the ones I tried it said co-developed by AI.

      So yeah, probably marketing stunt

      That said, if it hadn’t been artificially sweetened, I would probably have preferred it to the normal one. Felt like it had more flavor. Similar to Fritz Cola from Germany.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It will absolutely die out in that it will go back to what it was previously. We’ve been using “AI” for decades now, only it’s better known under the name machine learning. This latest surge in interest is just a bunch of marketing hype and a bunch of executives too stupid to realize they’re being fed a line of bullshit by contractors promising if they hire them to make an “AI” they’ll be able to fire their entire workforce and dump their salaries into fat executive bonuses. Just like all the previous tech fads this will stop being the hot thing once enough of these douche-bags get burned and even the dumbest of them learns that no, you can’t just replace your entire workforce with “AI” and call it a day.

          • orclev@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I don’t think it’s going to end up impacting most industries all that much. Low end call centers will probably be impacted, but they were already being displaced by automated call trees and such even before this latest fad. At some point trucking will be displaced by self driving trucks, but that tech is looking to be further off than it initially seemed as well thanks in part to some pretty high profile accidents and renewed scrutiny from various governments. Beyond that the impact in other industries is looking to be fairly minimal. You’ll see smarter tools being rolled out to let people do the things they were already doing faster, but just like the “magic clone” tool in Photoshop while it will make some tedious time consuming activities much faster, it won’t really fundamentally change things.

            Honestly the biggest impact is most likely to be on crime, with these various tools being leveraged by criminals to make increasingly convincing scams, phishing attacks, and even worse things.

            • alternative_factor@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              In biology we’ve been using machine learning for a long time now so the AI super hype out there is pretty funny to me. It’s for sure useful with stuff like predicting protein folding and analyzing genes and stuff, but it’s all hyper-specific stuff just like it has its always been. Good for removing tedium for sure as its the reason we can even know the human genome because it would take literally forever to sequence it without modern tech, which we did in the in the 90s and finished in 2003.
              My big hope is that all this hype will get people to invest in proteonomic technology which is 100% a great use case for AI and also the future.

        • evanuggetpi@lemmy.nz
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          1 year ago

          I run a bunch of e-commerce businesses and am a freelance developer. LLMs have absolutely changed my workflow and what I can achieve. There is hype, sure, but underneath it are absurdly useful platforms that, for me at least, have replaced the need to hire digital marketers, copywriters and junior programmers. This is too useful to be called a fad and dismissed the way the metaverse or NFTs rightly have been.

          • ripcord@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            How are you using it to replace junior programmers? What specifically?

            I haven’t found much besides tooling that answers questions (that are frequently right ENOUGH), write relatively small, targeted functions, add just a bit of IDE-embedded help, and…not much else.

            …stuff that could speed up a few things, but nothing that would remotely replace even a junior developer