BRILLO, aka Bartending Robot for Interactive Long-Lasting Operations, this is the most recent piece of news about bartending: a robot developed by researchers at Italy’s University of Naples Federico II in cooperation with PRISCA Labs and Totaro Automazioni, capable of preparing and serving cocktails, coffee and cappuccino, as well as engaging in dialogue with human customers, thanks to AI.
If, on one side, the news arouses interest and curiosity because of its impact, and is the result of a fast-growing trust in science and its progress, on the other side it leads us to reflect on the importance of human factor. In other words, notwithstanding the importance of science to support the individual, to us human contribution is fundamental and irreplaceable. Let’s think about going into a café and ordering a coffee: the profile welcoming us is a professional who puts all his/her passion at the customers’ service, with the aim to offer the very best tasting experience. The latter refers not only to extracting and serving espresso coffee, but also to the fundamental activity of engaging in dialogues, exchanging and sharing, that only among humans is made possible in its most genuine form. The cup of coffee may be different in its outcome from time to time, but it is certainly more ‘authentic’.
It is for this reason that here at Caffè Haiti Roma since years we have cooperated with the Institute of Coffee Tasters, to promote by the means of specialized courses the barman’s training, and to restore dignity and the value it deserves, to the figure of what we could call the artisan of Espresso.