It’s “bad. Don’t drink it.”
New Coke
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it won’t come as a surprise that Coca-Cola has jumped on the AI bandwagon, asking an algorithm to come up with a new flavor.
The flavor, dubbed “Year 3000,” is apparently supposed to taste like the future — and quench your thirst, of course.
But according to a new hard-hitting new investigative report by Gizmodo, the reality is far more sobering. According to the site’s team, Y3000 isn’t just a big downgrade from regular Coke, but it’s downright unpleasant.
The team didn’t mince words, calling it “all bark and no bite,” and simply “bad.”
“Don’t drink it,” advised Gizmodo breaking news reporter Kyle Barr.
“The first time the bubbling liquid hits your tongue you expect the same acidic, carbonated sensation as a regular Coke,” reads the report, “but the drink slithers to the back of the mouth and sits there, broiling with a numb triviality across your tastebuds.”
Taste of Home‘s Gael Fashingbauer Cooper was only slightly more enthusiastic, calling the beverage a “worthy new sibling to its playful, if peculiar, predecessors” — but advised against buying a 12-pack. The Mary Sue called it “predictably bad,” while Insider said it tasted like “when you mix all the drinks together at a soda fountain,” noting that it was better at room temperature.
Soda Pressing
It’s only the latest in an endless list of food and beverage companies to cook up AI-created drinks in hopes of viral attention, from AI IPAs to AI-inspired plant-based cheese. But whether AI can actually improve any of these experiences remains to be seen.
Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola refused to reveal what’s actually in Y3000 Zero Sugar, a drink the company claims was “co-created” with AI, per a press release.
To really sell the new recipe, Coca-Cola included a wholly unnecessary gimmick in the form of an AR experience consumers can access by scanning a QR code, or in press-release-speak, “new pathways to deepen our engagement with existing fans.”
In short, is Coca-Cola’s new Y3000 a new dawn in the history of mass-marketed soft drinks — or an awkward marketing ploy by checked-out execs? Given what we’ve seen so far, it’s most likely the latter.
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