Cooking appliances cause over 60% of home fires resulting in a staggering 89% of fire-related deaths, according to sobering statistics. Now one startup aims to make devices like air fryers safer with artificial intelligence.
Meet Chef AI – founded to eliminate the guesswork that leads to poorly cooked or forgotten food. Their headline product is a smart air fryer featuring advanced AI and sensors to automatically detect and adapt to whatever you throw in the basket.
“It can precisely understand how food of certain sizes and shapes behaves thanks to rebuilt training models that have already collected and aggregated data,” explained CEO Dean Khormaei.
Rather than relying on manual timers and temperatures, Chef AI’s air fryer uses computer vision and deep learning to analyze attributes like thickness, area and weight most other devices ignore. It then predicts and adapts cooking time on the fly for perfect doneness without human input.
Khormaei cooked up the idea after one too many instances of burning leftovers by forgetting his old air fryer was even on. Chef AI aims to eliminate such frustrating guesswork for good through thoughtful automation.
After debuting at 2023’s CES, the startup now plans to launch the appliance in September 2024 for US customers. Expansion to other regions will follow.
And smart features go beyond fire prevention. Users can customize preferences like crispiness levels through a companion app and feedback system. It’s even designed to learn and improve with use over time.
While Chef AI’s current focus is maximizing convenience and safety, Khormaei shared hopes of integrating similar intelligence into other dangerous cooking devices like microwaves and ovens someday soon.
After all, outdated appliance technology contributes to preventable tragedy far too often, the founders believe.
