But can artificial intelligence tools give the wine industry wings to soar, or do they just distract from the real issues at hand?
Recent news headlines have been hounded by warnings of AI’s dangerous, existential threat. Staff working on the tech are “genuinely frightened” for humanity’s future, said a former Anthropic researcher, with the firm’s boss Dario Amodei urging for AI development to slow down.
On the other hand, plenty of tech workers told BBC they believed the safety concerns were blown out of proportion, while Trump straight up called them a “hoax”.
Still, those who see AI as a catalyst for immense progress and those who think it will kill us all can agree on one thing: the fast-developing technology marks a fundamental shift for humanity. So, when Fero founder and CEO Mitchel Fowler called AI “the biggest disruption of our time” at The Drinks Business Conference last week, he was spot on.
The panel, titled ‘Fine wine meets AI: opportunity, insight and innovation’, had a key focus: to examine how the technology is streamlining the fine wine supply chain. Chaired by the drinks business editor Patrick Schmitt, the session included six industry experts: Callum Woodcock, founder and CEO of WineFi, Jeremy Howard, co-founder and CEO of Cru World Wine, Jane Renwick, fine wine director at London City Bond, wine consultant Siobhan Turner MW and Nick Martin, managing director at Wine Owners, joined Fowler on stage.
For Fowler, disruptive technology has one powerful benefit: “It forces people to be disciplined, focus on what matters, and lose some of the distractions”.
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