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Aug 13, 2026

Can Silicon Valley give AI good taste?

Critic and journalist Sophie Haigney argues taste is a distinctly human quality that even the best AI can’t replicate.

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Can Silicon Valley give AI good taste?
Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images

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Generative AI models can produce enormous volumes of text, images and video in seconds. But without expert human instruction, the output is often generic. (You might say slop.)

A number of startups in Silicon Valley are on a mission to change that by giving AI a more human sense of taste.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with critic and journalist Sophie Haigney about what taste is and whether artificial intelligence can truly replicate it.

The Team