Shake Shack to sell veggie burgers designed by A.I.

But can it also hold the key to healthier, cruelty-free food that can help to reduce greenhouse emissions warming the climate? 

Fast food chain Shake Shack believes it can and is rolling out an AI-designed burger using a medley of vegetables rather than alternative proteins like soy.

“Born out of testing many different veggie burger iterations in our NYC Shacks, the Veggie Shack is made from a proprietary blend of real garden vegetables and grains, seared to perfection,” it wrote in a statement on Tuesday, adding it will be added to the core menu from  May 5^th. 

While the patty is entirely plant-based, the burger itself is not vegan, as the cheese, sauce and bun include dairy products.

To create the Veggie Shack, the company enlisted the help of “Giuseppe”, an algorithm developed by the Jeff-Bezos backed Chilean food tech startup NotCo.

Named after the 16th-century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the AI analyzes the composition of animal-derived ingredients at a molecular level before attempting to replicate the taste and texture using a combination of 300,000 edible plants in its database.

Replacing beef and dairy can reduce the impact food has on climate since animal husbandry is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases.

NotCo claims its NotBurger for example can reduce CO2 emissions by 95% over a conventional one.

Created by NotCo’s resident computer scientist and co-founder Karim Pichara, Giuseppe hunts for patterns in the attributes of food otherwise hidden to the average food scientist with the ultimate goal of constantly learning. 

For example, when NotCo was first developing its own line of NotMilk brand dairy alternative, Giuseppe recommended including dill in the recipe, dying the product green in the process. 

In the meantime, it has been taught to understand the importance of colors as well.

NotCo claims the AI’s inherent ability to improve should progressively help reduce a new product’s time to market.

The latest twist in a society increasingly grappling with the real-world implications of AI, NotCo’s Giuseppe also helped create Shake Shack’s non-dairy chocolate shake and frozen custard, which are also being added to the core menu.

“Partnering up with Shake Shack used to be a dream of mine and one of the most ambitious milestones for NotCo,” Matías Muchnick, CEO and Co-Founder of NotCo, said in a statement.

“Having a tailored NotCo product in Shake Shack stores nationwide is a clear statement of our ability to create elevated tailored-made delicious and profitable versions of products in record time that appeal to the mass market.”