COSMETICS giant L’Oreal has announced a partnership with IBM to develop artificial intelligence technology that will help identify sustainable alternatives to the harmful ingredients used in its beauty products.
Non-biodegradable microplastics, like glitter, are often added to cosmetic products and their resistance to extraction from general waste makes them particularly harmful to the environment. The new partnership will see IBM develop a custom AI foundation model for L’Oreal, specifically to help their research teams find more bio-based and recycled materials, both in creating new products and reformulating existing ones.
In AI, foundation models are tools that have been tested on very large ungeneralised, unlabelled datasets. Their development across various sectors has accelerated since the 2022 release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT foundation model.
As well as sustainability, Stephane Ortiz, head of innovation at L’Oreal’s research division, said she hopes AI will help the company improve its “standards of inclusivity” and “personalisation”. The cosmetics industry has faced criticism in recent years for poor makeup shade range and marketing skin-lightening products.
L’Oreal has committed to removing microplastics from all production by 2030, while EU legislation will require all cosmetics products to be free from intentionally added microplastics by 2035. The company has already removed microplastic additives from “rinse-off” products like shampoo. All rinse-off cosmetics sold in the EU are required to be microplastic-free by 2027.
L’Oreal has pledged to source 95% of its ingredients from “abundant minerals or circular processes” by 2030. According to their latest sustainability report, the company achieved 65% in 2023.
Guilhaume Leroy-Meline, chief technical officer of IBM’s business transformation division, said: “This alliance between highly specialised expertise in artificial intelligence and cosmetics seeks to revolutionise cosmetic formulation.
“It embodies the spirit of AI-augmented research, emphasising sustainability and diversity.”
Allessandro Curioni, IBM’s vice-president for Europe and Africa, said: “At IBM, we believe in the power of purpose-built, customised AI to help transform businesses.
“Using IBM’s latest AI technology, L’Oreal will be able to derive meaningful insights from their rich formula and product data to create a tailored AI model to help achieve their operational goals and continue creating high quality sustainable products.”
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