This Robot Chef That Can Cook 2,000 Meals Goes On Sale In 2017

We live in an era of artificial kitchen intelligence. First, it was announced that IBM's Watson graduated from beating contestants on Jeopardy to publishing a cookbook, and now we have the Moley Robotics robot chef. The robot chef, which was unveiled at the Hannover Messe robotic technology fair in Germany, can cook up to 2,000 different meals perfectly at the push of a button — or by mimicking a series of techniques performed by an actual chef. The robot is devised of two electronic arms and hands with twenty motors, two dozen joints, and 129 sensors that perfectly imitate the function of real human hands.

You won't be able to get your own (non-metallic) hands on "the ultimate sous chef," as Tim Anderson, BBC Masterchef champion, described the invention, until 2017. Anderson is also serving as the robot chef's coach, training it to become an ultimate metallic master of the kitchen. At the Hannover Messe fair, Anderson demonstrated the robot's ability to create crab bisque.

"Crab bisque is a challenging dish for a human chef to make, never mind a robot," Anderson told Time. "If it can make bisque, it can make a whole lot of other things."

But don't worry, professional chefs. The robot is not meant to replace you (sure, that's what they all say at the beginning of dystopian novels). Anderson compares the robot to an extension of a chef's repertoire, like a cookbook or a video tutorial posted on YouTube. It's meant to be an addition to the kitchen that can absorb a chef's technique and make perfect dishes time after time.