How AI is Transforming the Food Industry - Aadit Patel & Macarena Zañartu , S4, Ep. 11

In this episode, we are joined by Aadit Patel and Macarena Zañartu, from NotCo. Aadit is a leader in Applied Machine Learning with over 13 years of experience, while Macarena is an exceptional designer who translates complex solutions for everyday users. Aadit has developed autonomous systems in aerospace, online advertising, FinTech, and biotechnology. Together, they are creating sustainable plant-based foods using advanced AI. Discussion Points:

• Can you share your individual journeys that led you to where you are today? 1:56
• What restrictions exist for AI in the EU and other regions, and do legal processes make it harder to implement? 8:36
• What are the biggest challenges you face when dealing with people who are hesitant to embrace technology? 13:12
• How similar was the experience of designing this application to your work on other applications, like banking? What similarities can you point out? 30:11
• Rapid Fire Round 35:22
• How do you think scientists can currently leverage AI tools and techniques in their research, and what potential do you see for the future? 45:39
• What advice would you give to new entrepreneurs looking to follow a similar model of creating innovative solutions with technology, and what challenges should they be aware of? 53:05

Show notes:

• From a core technology perspective, we figured out how to efficiently solve a common problem. Any formula, whether it’s toothpaste or a burger, is a combination of ingredients that undergo a process. - Aadit Patel
• The A I can do the hard stuff, you know, it can do the hard stuff like the constraints and thinking, and like all these high dimensions, it can be a great assistant for creativity. - Aadit Patel
• The way that we work together collaboratively with the machine learning engineers, there’s this whole validation process we do when we’re in that stage that first of all, are we actually solving a relevant problem that is important with that? - Macarena Zañartu
• Making people trust that way of working. It's like adapting. The way that they are interacting with this new interface is also a thing about processes, users are going to have to build things that they probably think are not going to work to let the system know what a better recommendation will be. - Macarena Zañartu
• The future of food needs to be not just nutritious but it needs to have some functionality that is, is helpful and backed up by potential claims. - Aadit Patel
• Don't fall in love with the thing that you're designing, like put it out there, test it iterate on it, and accept feedback, and don't wait until something is done in front of your eyes. - Macarena Zañartu

Links - Aadit Patel’s LinkedIn: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaditpatel/ Macarena Zañartu's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macazeta/ Company website: https://www.notco.com/