Nutrition AI for Dietary Assessment & Real-Time Feedback: State of the Science, Accuracy, and Ethics and Nutrition Education and Behavioral Science (NEBS) GEM Forum

Chair(s)

• 

  Debbie Fetter, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Associate Professor of Teaching
  University of California, Davis
  Davis, California, United States

  Disclosure(s): Dairy Council of California: Consultant (Ongoing)
  International Food Information Council Foundation: Independent Contractor (including contracted research) (Terminated)

Speaker(s)

• 

  Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers)

  Associate Professor and Dean for Research Strategy
  Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
  Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
  Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
• 

  Fengqing Zhu, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Associate Professor
  Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
  West Lafayette, Indiana, United States

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
• 

  Lauren Au, PhD, RDN (she/her/hers)

  Associate Professor
  University of California, Davis
  Davis, California, United States

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
• 

  Diana Thomas, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Department of Mathematical Sciences
  West Point
  West Point, New York, United States

  Disclosure information not submitted.

Panelist(s)

• 

  Catherine Ward, PhD, RD

  Clinical Lead, Nutrition Science, Adjunct Professor
  Google, Stanford University
  San Francisco, California, United States

  Disclosure(s): Google Health: Employee (Ongoing)

AI is reshaping dietary assessment and point-of-decision coaching, but its value hinges on validity, transparency, and safeguards. This session brings together experts in computer vision, behavioral nutrition, and implementation science to map the current evidence, compare AI vs. human/ground-truth methods, and outline best practices for model training, testing, and privacy. Speakers will address academic prototypes and commercial tools, dataset curation, guardrails for adaptive systems, and international use cases for real-time feedback.

Presentations will include speakers addressing (1) an introduction to Nutrition AI and academic pipelines, (2) adaptive AI, training, and guardrails, (3) U.S. and global applications with real-time feedback, and (4) a landscape review and academia–industry apps.

Presentations:

• 2:30 PM - 2:40 PM ET

  Welcome and Introductions - Nutrition AI for Dietary Assessment & Real-Time Feedback: State of the Science, Accuracy, and Ethics and Nutrition Education and Behavioral Science (NEBS) GEM Forum
  

  Chair: Debbie S. Fetter, PhD (she/her/hers) – University of California, Davis
• 2:40 PM - 2:55 PM ET

  The AI Dietary Assessment Landscape: Promise, Tools, and the State of the Evidence
  

  Speaker: Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers) – Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
• 2:55 PM - 3:10 PM ET

  Byte-Sized Diet: Building the Academic Pipeline for Next-Generation Nutrition AI
  

  Speaker: Fengqing Zhu, PhD (she/her/hers) – Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
• 3:10 PM - 3:25 PM ET

  Transforming Food Recognition Through LLM Technology in the U.S. and Abroad: Plant Village Food
  

  Speaker: Lauren E. Au, PhD, RDN (she/her/hers) – University of California, Davis
• 3:25 PM - 3:40 PM ET

  Collaborate Your Way to AI
  

  Speaker: Diana M. Thomas, PhD (she/her/hers) – West Point
• 3:40 PM - 4:00 PM ET

  Panel Discussion / Questions and Answers - Nutrition AI for Dietary Assessment & Real-Time Feedback: State of the Science, Accuracy, and Ethics and Nutrition Education and Behavioral Science (NEBS) GEM Forum
  

  Chair: Debbie S. Fetter, PhD (she/her/hers) – University of California, Davis

  Speaker: Lauren E. Au, PhD, RDN (she/her/hers) – University of California, Davis

  Speaker: Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers) – Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

  Speaker: Diana M. Thomas, PhD (she/her/hers) – West Point

  Speaker: Fengqing Zhu, PhD (she/her/hers) – Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University

  Panelist: Catherine P. Ward, PhD, RD – Google, Stanford University