AI claims it can tell which you like just by looking at you.

For many years now, there has been a rivalry between two chocolate-covered cookie snacks. Both Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato are made by the same company, Meiji, and feature the same chocolate on the same type of cookie, just in different amounts and shapes. Despite their many similarities, people in Japan tend to have a very definitive preference for one or the other.

This probably just sounds like a marketing gimmick, and it basically is. But, even as someone who can barely taste, let alone care about, the difference between stuff like Coke and Pepsi, I can say with the utmost certainty that Kinoko no Yama is superior to Takenoko no Sato. There really is no question about it in my mind, and honestly, I’m not even sure why.

It’s a peculiar phenomenon, and to learn more about it, Meiji has developed a dedicated AI called Kinotake Mother. This system was trained on 1.67 million points of preference pattern data and also studied the faces of hundreds of Meiji employees, in an effort to understand what makes a Kinoko no Yama or Takenoko no Sato fan.

The AI is currently available on the Meiji website, and if you allow it to take a picture of your face, it will determine which chocolate cookie snack you like better.

The image above was based on my own facial analysis, and sure enough, I was diagnosed with Kinoko no Yama fever. It also said I prefer novels to manga, soft pillows to firm, and skiing as my favorite winter sport. I’m not really sure if any of that other stuff is true, but Mother is primarily a snack AI, and it did its job very well in that regard at least.

Meiji was also surprised when Mother found a third type of human hiding in our midst. Though rare, there actually exist people who like both Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato in equal measure. According to the AI’s analysis, 52.4 percent of people are in the Kinoko camp, while 43.1 were Takenoko supporters. But there were another 4.4 percent of people who enjoyed both the same.

This worried Meiji, who felt these poor tortured souls weren’t getting maximum satisfaction from either snack on its own. So, they worked with Mother to develop a new fusion of Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato, dubbed Kitakita no Konokono Yamasato.

This marriage of the two snacks went on sale on 14 April, and consists of crushed bits of both Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato, suspended alongside wheat puffs in a milk-chocolate matrix, all covered in dark chocolate.

Online reaction to the treat was largely hostile, but with some intrigue mixed in. That’s probably expected for something that was created mainly to appeal to about four percent of the population.

“This is why AI will never surpass humans.”
“Couldn’t you have just put both in the same bag?”
“What’s the point if the shape is gone? The could be Pocky in there for all I know.”
“This might seem ideal at first, but it’s a dystopia that strips us of identity.”
“I’ll use my Defusion Magic card!”
“Why are they polluting Takenoko no Sato by merging them with Kinoko no Yama?”
“There’s no ‘ke’ in the name! This is Kinoko biased!”
“I buy them because the shape is cute. This [new one] is not. Give me back my mushroom shape…”
“Has the war finally ended? This is intriguing…”
“These are Black Thunder bars, aren’t they?”

They certainly do look and sound a lot like Black Thunder bars. Those are considered to be the pinnacle of chocolate bars by many, so it’s not surprising this was deemed to be Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato’s ultimate form.

Kitakita no Konokono Yamasato will only be sold for a limited time, so those who are interested will need to act fast to see what this unholy union tastes like.

Source: Kinotake Mother (Meiji), PR Times
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