Google Used Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes To Test Its AI

In what may be an attempt to be more relatable, Google tested new artificial intelligent software by making it bake cookies.

According to Quartz, Google's dessert contractor (a real job, apparently) programmed different chocolate chip recipes into the AI to make sure its algorithm worked. The recipes would change twice a week for several weeks in true trial-and-error style, changing up elements like adding less butter to make a crumblier cookie.

Quartz reports that the search engine company used cookie recipes as layman's terms for an AI adviser. The algorithm was created to speed up the trial-and-error process. It takes a series of directions, like a recipe, and performs them with varying changes, also known as hyperparameters, or ingredients. The algorithm then continually performs the directions until it reaches the goal, previously set by a human. Using the cookie example, the AI kept making cookies, some with baking powder, some with baking soda, some with more butter and so on until the perfect cookie was achieved.

As it turns out, the algorithm worked according to plan, and Google's employees deemed the proof "delicious."