Swap it Smart seeks to develop healthy and ethically sourced recipes using artificial intelligenceBy RIVERS STOUT— campus@theaggie.orgOn Oct. 23, the Bezos Earth Fund announced that they will donate $2 million to the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, an organization managed by the American Heart Association, in order to create the Swap it Smart project. Led by two UC Davis professors, the project plans to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based recipes aimed at developing healthy and ethically sourced foods using large language models (LLMs) and machine learning. The grant was issued alongside 14 others, all aimed at using AI to benefit the environment and as part of an investment into AI technologies.Started by UC Davis Professors and Co-Principal Investigators Ilias Tagkopoulos and Justin Siegel, Swap it Smart aims to use AI to create recipes for both chefs and the general public, using an app. “We got an award from the Bezos Earth Fund and this consortium of multiple parties to use AI and create meals that are nutritious,” Tagkopoulos said. “They will probably use ethically sourced foods that are sustainable and will have the right nutrients to support our diet.”The Bezos Earth fund acts as a philanthropic arm for its namesake, Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos. It was founded in 2020 with an initial commitment by Bezos of $10 billion for grants to address issues in the climate and nature.“At the Bezos Earth Fund, we’re focused on making AI work for the environment — not the other way around,” Amen Ra Mashariki, the director of AI at the Bezos Earth Fund, said in the grant press release. “These projects show how AI, when developed responsibly and guided by science, can strengthen environmental action, support communities, and ensure its overall impact on the planet is net positive.”However, the fund has recently faced some scrutiny, with allegations that the non-profit has acted to further Bezos’ economic and political interests. Both the fund and Bezos himself faced criticism early this year when they cut funding to the Science Based Targets initiative, an international climate certification group. The move was seen by some as a bowing down to the Trump administration and its distancing from climate change action.Tagkopoulos’ and his partners’ labs have been working with AI in the form of machine learning and LLMs in the context of food sciences for years. However, the Swap it Smart project is new and has yet to be completely fleshed out. Tagkopoulos indicated that it will take years and more funding to fully develop, but the one-time $2 million grant is getting it started.“We have no idea [how it’ll work],” Tagkopoulos said. “We will work with our partners at the American Heart Association and the Periodic Table of Food Initiative to get the right data, then we will develop the methods, AI methods and computational methods to mix and match foods that are more sustainable and nutritious.”While Tagkopoulo Read More