Weâve got robots that can vacuum our floors, robots that can pull up a recipe or the perfect song with a voice command, and even robot security guards.
Now, a robot can mix you a cocktail if youâre too tired to do it yourself.
But is it better than a good old-fashioned, flesh-and-blood bartender?
Makr Shakr is the company behind the new robot bartender, but the elegant white machine goes by âToni.â
â(Toni) can crush ice, he can put lime, lemon, white and brown sugar and (up to) 200 ingredients, different ingredients, in order to create a new cocktail,â said Lorenzo Risitano, project manager for Makr Shakr.
Toniâs setup includes two white mechanical arms that can grasp cups and shakers, and an overhanging ceiling covered in colour-coded bottles of spirits. The six-axis arms can swivel in every direction and are waterproof, according to Makr Shakrâs website, and there are 158 bottles mounted on the overhang.
To create a drink, Toniâs arm raises a shaker to the ceiling for nozzles to deposit the right amount of mix and alcohol, then whirls the mixture around and around in its steely grasp. Its movements are modelled after Italian choreographer and dancer Marco Pelle.
Toniâs skills were tested one evening at âAI: More Than Human,â a new exhibition at the Barbican Center in London, England. On a recent night, visitors could watch the robot go head-to-head with a group of human bartenders to see who could provide the best drinking experience.
âItâs a very impressive piece of kit, but I think of all the industries to try and usurp mankind, bartending is probably the hardest for a robot to succeed,â said Felix Cohen, one of the six bartenders who came in to defend bartending as a human specialty at the exhibition.
There were two rounds: one to make a negroni â a popular Italian cocktail, with gin, sweet vermouth, and Campariâ and one to make a signature cocktail called âMore than Human,â and based on the concept of the exhibition.
Four judges tasted the drinks made by Toni and its human counterparts and graded them to answer the question that has been posed countless times since the Industrial Revolution.
Who is better: man or machine?
Ultimately, when it comes to alcohol, it seems humans still have the edge.
âWhen youâre trying to do it with a robotic (arm) and a shaker, for me it just doesnât work for a negroni,â said Dawn Davies, one of the contest judges. âNegroni needs to be stirred. There needs to be a bit of love.â
Makr Shakrâs website claims Toni can make 80 drinks in an hour. But there is more to creating a cocktail than mechanical precision and speed, Cohen says.
âWho is welcoming you as you walk in the door and making sure that you get to a taxi at the end of the night?â Cohen said. âYou donât go to a bar just for the cocktails, you go to a bar for the social experience, and the machines are not social.â
Itâs unlikely that bars will be replacing their human staff with multiple Tonis anytime soon.
But if you absolutely need to try machine-mixed beverages, the âAI: More than Humanâ exhibition will be up until Aug 26. Thereâs plenty of time still to get a drink from the robot at the Barbican, or simply enjoy its dance-like movements.