Osmo has created a system that can "round trip" a smell: analyzing a physical scent, converting it into digital data, and then physically reconstituting it elsewhere. This breakthrough, demonstrated with their "Plum 1.0" scent, represents a fundamental step in giving computers a sense of smell, with profound implications for technology and society.
The core of Osmo's technology is the application of advanced AI, specifically graph neural networks, to the complex domain of chemistry and olfaction. This approach enabled them to solve the long-standing problem of predicting scent from molecular structure, a feat validated in a double-blind trial where the AI outperformed human panelists.
Instead of just selling software to incumbents, Osmo is building a vertically integrated fragrance house called Generation. By combining their proprietary AI with human perfumers, they aim to disrupt the traditional, slow, and exclusive fragrance industry by making custom scent design faster, more affordable, and accessible to a wider audience.
Osmo recognized that off-the-shelf data was insufficient for their needs, so they built an entire internal ecosystem for generating olfactory data. This includes in-house sensory panels for human labeling, automated molecular sensors, and an active learning loop where the AI designs new molecules to be synthesized and smelled, continuously improving the models.
Keep pulling the thread on Alex Wiltschko.