The number 36 may not hold any significance for you, but for Angela D’Orazio, it marks an important milestone.

D’Orazio is the master blender and chief nose officer at Mackmyra – a multi-award-winning Swedish whisky distillery, and the producer of the world’s first AI-created whisky.

Recipe number 36, generated by an AI algorithm, was the one that D’Orazio personally selected for the groundbreaking blend, before it went into production and on general sale.

This is the story of human craftsmanship and technology working in partnership, to produce something rather special.

Recipe number 36

The idea for AI-created whisky came to light during a meeting between Mackmyra and Microsoft, in which the future of whisky was being discussed. Inspired by the idea, Microsoft partner Fourkind – a Finnish technology consultant – was brought in to develop the solution.

Working closely together with Mackmyra and D’Orazio, Fourkind created its AI solution using Microsoft Azure and Machine Learning Studio, before providing it with the datasets it needed to begin generating its first recipes.

Jarno Kartela, Principal Machine Learning Partner at Fourkind, states that “We chose Azure for its vast massive infrastructure and Machine Learning Studio, and its ease of deployment.”

Microsoft’s Machine Learning Studio – a powerful browser-based tool – was used by Fourkind for its easy serverless infrastructure handling, allowing them to run and deploy their own custom solution, creating a bespoke AI algorithm which intelligently generates new whisky recipes.