The perfume industry is turning to AI to predict molecular scents and to cell culture to produce rare ingredients, aiming to avoid repeated harvesting of endangered plants, according to a Guardian report covered by TechNews. Osmo, spun out of Google Brain and having raised US$130 million, trained its AI on more than 5 million human smell responses; founder Alex Wiltschko said the company recreated the scent of a rare tree from a finger-sized piece of bark. BioHarvest Sciences said it has established a stable cell culture for an endangered Southeast Asian fragrance plant and announced an agreement expected to yield 20 metric tons of fragrance compounds, with small-scale production as early as 2027. Critics push back: natural perfumer Mandy Aftel calls the conservation framing greenwashing, Rhian Smith of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says AI-designed oud substitutes will not fully relieve pressure on wild plants, and Wiltschko himself acknowledges conservation is not an explicit priority for Osmo.