Is Artificial Intelligence helpful for understanding TTB regs?

[Brady Benware]

Hi Everyone!

I'm doing research in Artificial Intelligence and have recently become fascinated by the beverage alcohol industry.

After speaking with a half dozen distilleries and breweries in the Portland Oregon area, I learned that TTB regulations are very hard to understand. And, I hear it's a big problem for newcomers and innovators in the industry.

I also learned that quite a few folks in the industry were turning to AI, specifically ChatGPT, for answers. ChatGPT can produce really useful answers, but can also produce very convincing wrong answers.

To better understand how AI can help industry members like you better understand how regulations apply to their specific situation, we built ChatTTB. It's an AI trained specifically on title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations (the TTB stuff). It produces useful answers like ChatGPT, but also validates that information with the CFRs and provides specific citations to the regulations so you can validate the accuracy.

We'd love to learn more about how the industry is using AI and if this new ChatTTB system is helpful or not.

If you want to see some example Q&A from the system, visit https://ttb.gptnow.ai/

If you want to ask it a question about your business, please use the following link:

https://ttb.gptnow.ai/?token=rak-iWOigNa72B332q9oC4UbFBFinEmtqMmQzOIr8OOe2OVH

Feel free to respond here with any feedback, or email us at support@gptnow.ai

Cheers!

[Pofarmer]

What little I know about ChatGPT, and it's very little, I wouldn't trust it with anything involving my money or freedom.

[jocko]

I would use ChatGPT like a student advisor.  It has access to everything ever published on the Internet but can struggle with context. 

I can do about 90% of a complex assignment, which can be a massive help.  But, don't run with it as gospel.  It can make things up if it gets in a pinch. 

I've done it when developing code and it probably cut my development time by 80%.

[Silk City Distillers]

Doing a lot of work with RAG approaches, not bad.  You need to be incredibly careful here, as it's very easy for it to very convincingly cite incorrect information.

Prompt:  

Provide a bulleted list of characteristics that distinguish bottled-in-bond from straight whiskey.  Only list what is different, not what is similar.  Your life depends on answering this correctly, so take your time.

Answer:

Bottled-in-bond and straight whiskey have distinct characteristics as defined by their respective regulations:

• •
  Bottled-in-bond must be distilled by the same distiller within one distilling season, while straight whiskey does not have this requirement § 5.88
   
• •
  Bottled-in-bond must be stored for at least 4 years, whereas straight whiskey must be aged for a minimum of 2 years § 5.88; § 5.143, 
   
• •
  Bottled-in-bond can be stored in wooden containers, with vodka specifically allowed in paraffin-lined containers and gin in paraffin-lined or unlined containers; straight whiskey must be aged in charred new oak barrels § 5.88; § 5.143, 
   
• •
  Bottled-in-bond cannot be altered other than by filtration, chill proofing, or physical treatments, while straight whiskey cannot contain any neutral spirits, coloring, flavoring, or blending materials (except as part of a flavor in blends) § 5.88; § 5.143, 
   
• •
  Bottled-in-bond must be reduced to and bottled at 50% alcohol by volume (100 proof) only by adding pure water, with no specific proof requirement for straight whiskey § 5.88
   
• •
  Bottled-in-bond does not require an age statement if labeled as such, whereas straight whiskey requires an age statement if aged less than 4 years § 5.74
   
• •
  Imported bottled-in-bond spirits must comply with their country's laws for "bottled in bond," a requirement not applicable to straight whiskey § 5.88
   

These regulations outline the specific criteria that differentiate bottled-in-bond from straight whiskey.

 

[Silk City Distillers]

And yes, many LLMs will respond more accurately if you threaten its 'life'.

"Your life depends on answering this correctly, so take your time."

[jocko]

Silk, the robot overlords will be coming back for everyone that threatened its rise.  I for one always express extreme gratitude and best wishes, and end with "I look forward to serving my robot overlords."

[FIVE x 5 Consulting]

5 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

very easy for it to very convincingly cite incorrect information.

Just about every answer I've seen is subtly wrong, if not profoundly. Even yours, which is pretty solid overall, has some convincingly-stated patent falsehoods like "no specific proof requirement for straight whiskey" (um, proof at distillation, barreling proof and bottling proof are all regulated) and "straight whiskey must be aged in charred new oak barrels" (hello, Straight Corn Whiskey?). 

That said, it's a good place to start your research if you're interested in untangling the web of CFR cross references and are able to look at citations carefully. One big issue I've seen (among many) is that the bot will happily cite beer/wine-only regs when asked about DSPs.

[Silk City Distillers]

Oh I agree, using this sort of thing for regulatory or legal direction is going to be very problematic.

TTB isn’t going to care what the AI told you.