NEC, Bakery Develop ‘Love Bread’ that Uses AI to Express Romantic Feelings Through Flavors

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:14 JST, January 17, 2024

NEC Corp. and long-established bakery Kimuraya Sohonten announced on Wednesday that they have developed “RenAI pan,” or Love Bread, which uses artificial intelligence to express romantic feelings through flavors.

The companies said that the bread will be available at supermarkets and other retailers from February to April and will feature five varieties, including a flavor of mutual love that joins couples together and a flavor that reflects a tearful broken heart.

The AI analyzed conversations on a love-themed program on internet streaming service Abema to quantify the feelings of joy and amazement that people experience during various occasions associated with love, such as meeting someone nice or going on a date. Similarly, the AI quantified the emotions associated with fruits and sweets using the lyrics of 35,000 songs containing words related those foods. Then the AI selected candidate ingredients which evoke emotions close to each love-related occasion.

In the process of turning these data into bread, Kimuraya’s artisans gave consideration to flavor affinities while combining the ingredients.

For the mutual love flavor, honey was added to the peach-flavored dough to express the sweet and comforting sensation of wanting to be together forever. For the tearful flavor, cider was used to express the feeling of disappearing like bubbles, and dried apples and grapes were used to create a sweet and sour sensation.

A Kimuraya official said, “We really made this bread to encourage romance among young people. We believe it will be an effective way of tying you to someone you love.”