Statement on Ethical AI.

Usage of AI

GlutenSpot uses agentic AI to research restaurants, grocery stores, and events to find key facts that build a gluten policy profile. AI helps categorise restaurant information into structured fields. The AI does not certify gluten-free safety. Instead, it shows the available facts and confirmation status so diners can make informed decisions. AI is used on this project because the global scale of the project and the frequency of data updates would not be viable to conduct solely by humans.

Once data has been collected, the GlutenSpot AI agent reaches out to the restaurant, store, or event to confirm what it has found and to ask for additional details it could not find publicly. This process is human-in-the-loop, meaning that if the AI is uncertain whether it has understood a member of staff, it will ask GlutenSpot staff to confirm. Once the AI has completed this process, the final report of the responses and the communication history are passed on for a human to sign off.

Transparency

In the GlutenSpot app, every piece of information clearly states whether it was found by AI or confirmed by the restaurant, store, or event. The date the information was collected or confirmed is listed alongside the information.

Energy and Water Consumption

GlutenSpot is committed to minimising the environmental impact of the use of AI. GlutenSpot is not 'vibe coded' and was founded, designed, and built by a career software developer with over a decade of experience. Every effort has been taken to streamline resource usage. The AI agent uses open source foundation models that can run on commercial hardware, as opposed to frontier models that require large datacenters. The energy used to research restaurants for an entire large city such as Berlin is equivalent to leaving a small space heater on for a day. The GlutenSpot API server runs on 100% renewable energy.

Handling of Data

No collected data or correspondence leaves the GlutenSpot servers or devices. The AI models we use run completely on our servers. No data is shared with any external AI companies for training purposes or otherwise.

User generated content on the GlutenSpot platform is not used to train AI. User generated content may be processed by AI for categorisation or to find other trends in restaurant reviews.