Meet Alfred — Your Personal Dining Robot

Tech startup Cleversense designs products that use the latest technology in the emerging fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning to power mobile apps for the every-person. Their newest product introduces a robot called Alfred to the world, dedicated to offering thoughtful and personalized dining recommendations.

After downloading the application (currently only available for the iPhone), Alfred prompts users to answer a series of questions about their restaurant preferences — everything from rating specific restaurants in the area with thumbs up or down, to listing your favorite places to dine, nationwide. From there, Alfred takes into account your location and time of day, then pulls pertinent information from review sites like Yelp! and Chow to compile a curated list of recommendations just for you.  

We decided to put Alfred's skills to the test and the results were impressive. Alfred began learning my preferences by asking questions like "What is your favorite weeknight restaurant?" and "Where do you like to eat with your friends on a Saturday night?" He immediately offered a list of similar places based on my answers and asked which of these restaurants I liked. After that the ball was in my court — either browse recommendations by category (dinner, desserts, etc.), or continue teaching Alfred about my preferences. To help in the decision-making process, the app includes specialty dishes, menus, and reviews. 

The bottom line is that Alfred differs from other dining-based mobile apps because it takes an array of factors into account — personal taste, location, crowd sourcing, and practical information (menus and hours, primarily). With this combination, developers at Cleversense have created an app that food lovers can depend on. 

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.