DEMO: ExpertMaker brings AI search tools to developers

ExpertMaker is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Today’s search works well when you know what you’re looking for. But when it comes to making decisions that involve intent, feelings, wants, needs, and constraints, there’s still a lot left to be desired. Sweden-based ExpertMaker is looking to advance this space by unveiling artificial-intelligence-powered search technology at the DEMO conference today.

ExpertMaker licenses its technology, which it calls ExpertMaker IMS, to companies looking to build subject-specific search engines. Its tool can be used to model, design, and train a search engine that incorporates recommendations, advice, diagnostics and machine-learning techniques. Because the interface is desktop-based, the people in companies licensing ExpertMaker’s technology don’t have to have Ph.D.’s in computer science to make it work.

To demonstrate its technology, the company currently offers an app called Pasta Explorer on Apple’s App Store and Android. The app gives you recipe suggestions by gauging your preferences through factors like your preferred type of pasta, ingredients, difficulty, time and level of spiciness.

Instead of using a keyword-based approach, the technology uses filters as its main input, which the company says offer high precision through taking into account one’s preferences, feelings, and taste. It’s easy to see how ExpertMaker’s technology could be used to offer all types of recommendations — ranging from niches to broad topics like taste in music and movies.

ExpertMaker was founded in 2006 and is based in Lund, Sweden. The 14-person startup was founded by Lars Hård, previously a lecturer at Lund University in biology and advanced mathematics.