AI could help perfumers recreate scents of endangered plants without harvesting

Biotech firms and startups like Osmo ($130m raised) are using AI to predict how molecules smell and recreate fragrances from endangered plants, including oud from Aquilaria trees. BioHarvest Sciences has produced a stable cell culture from a rare south-east Asian plant and plans 20 tonnes of fragrance composition. Conservationists call such claims greenwashing.

• Osmo raised $130m and trained its AI on over 5m human smell responses
• BioHarvest created a cell culture of a rare plant, targeting 20 tonnes of scent
• Conservationists say synthetic substitutes do not reduce demand for wild plants
• Future Society collected cloud microbes, yielding 57 scent molecules