For those not in the know, I’ve been working on a chatbot affectionately known as “Chom, Your Culinary Companion” — Chom for short. (Coming soon™ to https://chom.ai/ !) Chom is in an alpha state, capable of interacting with users but integrations and steering are still in the works.
Chom interacts with users in a chat window to plan meals, make substitutions, gather recipes and prepare shopping lists. The site/app that hosts Chom is integrated with the AI to intelligently track the activities in the conversation, like listing groceries on the side and allowing for a user to export a PDF, print the list, or even order from an online retailer like Walmart for pickup or delivery.
Chom is built with some of the latest in AI modeling† using the Transformer architecture (Large Language Models, S-BERT and multiple databases of embeddings.) For current builds, we are using a limited dataset for our embeddings; as we move towards beta and a small public launch, we’ll be looking towards sourcing larger datasets for recipes, ingredients, and allergens.
My eventual hope for Chom is to establish sufficient funding to provide a not-for-profit service to the world such that everyone – food insecure folks, folks with dietary challenges, moms and dads prepping dinner for soccer night, everyone! – will have access to a personal consultant for their cooking needs.
In the time since the initial working build of Chom and now, M and I have been able to reduce our food waste considerably – ballpark 1-2 meals saved in food per week. We’re finding uses for all the stuff in the pantry and fridge; those “fun to try” purchases like sauces or condiments that only get used a couple times, leftovers that won’t make enough for two people on their own, and new takes on our favorite ingredients to keep dinner time fresh.
I’m attaching a video below of the pre-alpha state of the Chom app, which was built using a command line interface to let me focus on coding the AI part. Worry not, though — Chom is getting a facelift and will be available via website and (eventually) mobile app in short order. I’ve also attached a screenshot of a WIP form of the website as a promise for what’s to come.★
†I want to dive into the technical aspects of Chom’s AI, but I’ll reserve that for a future post. One step at a time!