Bakery chain uses AI to help Bangladeshis estimate their actual date of birth

Bangladeshi bakery chain Tasty Treat has created Best Birthday Gift, an AI service that helps citizens figure out when they were born. Around 20 million Bangladeshis use January 1st as a default date of birth. Home births are common and birth certificates didn't become mandatory until the late 1990s, so actual dates often weren't registered.

Addressing that problem, Best Birthday Gift asks for memories of anything that took place around the time a person was born — religious holidays, extreme weather events and historical happenings like elections. That data is then used to triangulate a date of birth. After someone's (estimated) birthday has been determined, a personalized celebratory cake can be ordered from Tasty Treat. The service was launched late March 2024 and is offered to customers in the chain's 200+ outlets.