A London bar called Otherworld Hackney has teamed up with drinks app DUSK to put ChatGPT to the ultimate mixology test: creating a cocktail that could be the ‘best in the world’.

The AI bot’s signature serve – called Heavenly Slippers – features gin, St-Germain elderflower liqueur, Absinthe, Cointreau, two dashes of orange bitters and sparkling wine to top.

When asked why the cocktail tastes so great, ChatGPT said: “This Heavenly Sipper cocktail contains less than 50ml of spirit measure, which makes it a lighter but still sophisticated drink that is perfect for those who prefer a more balanced cocktail. It’s a refreshing and flavoursome drink that combines the tartness of lime, the sweetness of honey, and the subtle floral notes of elderflower, with a hint of anise flavour.” 

CEO and co-founder of DUSK Sophie Abrahamovitch said: “As AI continues to infiltrate every area of our lives, we had to put it to the test and find out if it was up to mixing a world-class cocktail. After tasting it ourselves and posting online, it became pretty clear that people wanted to try it too, putting their night out in the chatbot’s hands – we teamed up with OTHERWORLD, the perfect partner for cocktails and technology to bring this virtual reality to London.”

What is ChatGPT? GPT stands for Generative Pretrained Transformer, ChatGPT specifically refers to a variant of GPT that has been fine-tuned for conversational text. It is a state-of-the-art language model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to questions and prompts. 

In the US, Houston’s Axelrad bar recently released a menu of AI-generated drinks, all fully conceived by ChatGPT.

“I’ve seen ChatGPT being used in a lot of different fields and we thought, could it create a cocktail?” says owner Adam Brackman. “It’s passed medical exams, it’s passed the bar — why not see what it can do behind a bar?”

It turns out ChatGPT needed some initial help from bartenders with tastebuds.

“Off the bat we found they lacked some creativity — ChatGPT would just crank out sugary drinks,” said Brackman.

So, Axelrad’s bartenders gave it some advice. If a drink had too much simple syrup, they told it so. If it was too heavy handed on the liqueurs, they’d direct it to dial it down.

“We ended up with some recipes that weren’t that bad!” said Brackman.

ChatGPT passes three levels of Master Sommelier exam

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT has also passed three levels of the infamously difficult Court of Master Sommeliers exams.

As VinePair reports: “The notoriously-difficult Court of Master Sommelier exams are typically split into two sections: theory and practice. Examinees undergo written exams based on wine types, history, modern applications, and current events in the industry. The practical exam includes a blind tasting of global wines and a test of wine service skills (depending on the exam level).

“Students often study for months and hire specialized coaches to prepare for the two-day course and introductory exam.”

ChatGPT achieved 92% on the introductory Court of Master Sommelier test. It also scored 86 and 77% on the Certified and Advanced Sommelier exams, respectively.

However, it can’t fully pass without completing the tasting section, which is something humans still have over AI.