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IBM Computer Creates Meals At South By SouthWest Festival

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in businesses: Computerize Cookery.

The South by Southwest Festival is underway in Austin. And IBM has brought in a very special food truck, serving dishes developed by its famous supercomputer, Watson.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

One early recipe, Baltic Apple Pie. It draws together unlikely ingredients: apples, apricots, blueberries, ginger, garlic, onion and pork. I'm kind of cringing here. IBM calls the Cognitive Cooking. The computer draws from all kinds of information about ingredients, recipes, tastes profiles - even the smells of different foods.

MONTAGNE: You know, I think that sounds interesting.

GREENE: You can have it.

MONTAGNE: Pork and peaches or blueberries, I guess. But give Watson a few inputs apparently; a kind of dish, a type of cuisine, an ingredient and he gets to work on a never before tasted recipe. It's programmed to search out inventive, novel food pairings, David.

GREENE: OK. Call it invented - whatever you call it. Now for the actual cooking, Watson needs the help of a chef who I am hoping can actually veto some of these recipes before actually going into the kitchen.

That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.