The Neuron: AI Explained Teaching Computers to Smell?! The AI That's Digitizing Scent
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Nov 7, 2025 
Join Alex Wiltschko, olfactory neuroscientist and founder of Osmo, as he reveals groundbreaking advancements in scent technology. Discover how his team achieved scent teleportation, sending the aroma of a fresh plum through their lab. Alex explains the fascinating read/map/write framework for digitizing smell and the potential for AI-designed fragrances. Learn how this innovation could revolutionize health diagnostics and even link scents to emotions and memories, plus how Osmo Studio can let anyone craft custom fragrances in just a week!
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Read, Map, Write Framework For Smell
- Digitizing smell requires three distinct steps: read, map, and write, each using different technologies.
- The missing piece historically has been the map, which AI and large datasets can now extract from data.
Smell Is Far Higher-Dimensional Than Color
- Human olfaction uses ~300 receptor types, making smell far higher-dimensional than color.
- Smell's map won't be simple like RGB but can be learned from data with modern algorithms.
Plum Scent Teleportation Breakthrough
- Osmo teleported the smell of a fresh plum by reading its molecules, mapping them with AI, and reprinting the scent.
- Alex described the experience as vividly transporting and completely instrument-driven.
