CS158-2 Activity #4

Artificial Intelligence creates Electronic Noses

Articles:

How a Computer Chip Can Smell without a Nose

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/how-computer-chip-smell-without-nose/

What is a chemical sensor?

https://www.fierceelectronics.com/electronics/what-a-chemical-sensor

This digital 'nose' could make your coffee smell better and improve your cooking
https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-digital-nose-could-make-your-coffee-smell-better-and-improve-your-
cooking/

Artificial Intelligence Has a Strange New Muse: Our Sense of Smell

https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-has-a-strange-new-muse-our-sense-of-smell/

AI can pick out specific odors from a combination of smells

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237534-ai-can-pick-out-specific-odours-from-a-combination-of-
smells/

Computers That Smell: Intel’s Neuromorphic Chip Can Sniff Out Hazardous Chemicals
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/computers-smell-intels-neuromorphic-chip-sniff-hazardous-chemicals/
#gs.p1y9ww

'Digital smell' technology could let us transmit odors in online chats

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/digital-smell-technology-could-let-us-transmit-odors-online-
chats-ncna940121

AI is acquiring a sense of smell that can detect illnesses in human breath

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ai-artificial-intelligence-smell-detect-illness-science-
technology-a8394706.html

Instructions:
From above articles, answer the questions below:

1. Please explain on how an AI can have a sense of smell.

- A data collection including 72 chemical sensors enables the AI to recognize odor, allowing it to have a
feeling of tiny. The use of AI for odor detection is already in use through smoke detectors, but the difference
between the smoke detector and the AI developed by Imam and his team was that the AI was able to determine the
neural representation of 10 different smells, whereas a standard smoke detector would not be able to distinguish or
categorize the harmful molecules passing through the wind.

2. What industries or businesses can benefit from this technology? Please cite three examples and provide
explanation for each industry or business.
 - I believe that the medical business will gain from this technology because scent is one of a human's most
significant senses, and with the help of AI, it can be utilized to sniff out or detect if a human or a patient has a
disease based on the molecules that the person is exhaling. Furthermore, this type of AI may be advantageous to
persons who do not have access to the internet, have a sense of smell and can assist them in determining what an
odor smells like by using neural simulation, as indicated in one of the articles.

3. What are the possible challenges of e-Noses? (e.g. Distance from subject and AI, you may use this but provide
another challenges)

- Aside from distance, determining odor or scent when a location or region has several aromas in the breeze
might be a difficulty for the E-Noses. An example of this would be a garbage dump, which has a combination of
scents, which I believe an e-nose would have a hard time distinguishing between the chemicals or molecules.
Another potential problem for the E-Nose is the quantity of scents that an AI may conceivably retain. What I mean
is that, as said in the article, the E-nose has a data set for detecting a chemical or odor, so will the AI have enough
data for all of the odors.

4. How close are we now on having an AI that can smell as good as humans?

- I believe we are still a long way from the day when AI can smell as good as we do because our
technology has not progressed significantly, and we are still working to achieve or gain a complete understanding of
the world of technology because we still lack knowledge about the creation of various things. I believe that AI for
smelling has only just begun, and that it will require further research to become as good as human scent and to
contribute to the improvement of human life quality.

5. Do you think that AI will have better smell senses than humans after 25 years?

-I can’t answer this issue since I believe that predicting or guessing the progress of something I don't
understand is difficult. Furthermore, the answer to this form of inquiry would only be correct or 'regarded' as an
answer if it was correct. If it was answered by an expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence technology
development. But, if I had to answer, AI for smelling would still be unable to compete with the real deal of human
smell because, as of now, Artificial Intelligence suffers from error or system failure, implying that in 25 years, it will
be insufficient.