AI Model Outperforms Humans at Predicting How Molecules Will Smell

Computers are getting better at predicting how molecules will smell by placing them on a "odor map" where related scents are closer together.

The computer model was trained on data of molecules and odor descriptions from industry, then tested against humans trained to describe smells consistently.

The AI model predicted smells slightly better than humans, providing insights into how the brain perceives and organizes odors.

The "odor map" relates a molecule's structure to its smell, but doesn't fully capture the complexity of human olfaction.

This is an important step toward digitizing smell, but more work is needed to model odor concentration, mixtures, and individual differences.