'Always leave regretting...': Bengaluru techie builds BuffetGPT to fix wedding food FOMO

After taking on Bengaluru’s chaotic traffic with an AI-powered helmet, 27-year-old software engineer Pankaj Tanwar is back with a lighter — but equally relatable — innovation: optimising what to eat at a big Indian wedding buffet. 

Tanwar, a Bengaluru-based techie, recently unveiled BuffetGPT, an AI agent designed to help wedding guests navigate sprawling buffet spreads without regret. Announcing the project on social media, he called the traditional Indian wedding buffet “a scam.” 

“Indian wedding buffet is a scam. I always leave regretting something. So I built BuffetGPT 😠 — an AI agent that scans the entire buffet and gives you a game plan,” Tanwar wrote. 

According to him, the system uses computer vision to detect every dish on display and then applies optimisation logic to decide what to eat, what to skip, and how much — factoring in what he jokingly refers to as “actual stomach volume physics.” The idea, still in its early stages, was tested as an alpha version at a friend’s wedding. 

“It’s pretty early, tested alpha at a friend’s wedding. Decent results. Tbh, this is what my CS degree was for,” he added. 

From traffic tech to wedding tech 

BuffetGPT follows Tanwar’s earlier viral experiment that tackled a far more serious urban problem — Bengaluru’s notorious traffic violations. Frustrated with red lights being treated as suggestions and rampant wrong-side driving, Tanwar chose code over confrontation. 

He fitted his helmet with an AI-enabled camera capable of detecting traffic violations in near real time. The system automatically captures photographic evidence, identifies vehicle numbers and locations, and reports violations directly to traffic authorities. 

“I was tired of stupid people on the road, so I hacked my helmet into a traffic police device,” Tanwar wrote in a post on X, which brought the project into the public spotlight. 

His idea was built on an existing provision: Bengaluru traffic police already allow citizens to report violations via their app, email, and WhatsApp, provided complaints include valid evidence. Tanwar automated this entire process through his helmet-mounted setup. 

Bengaluru Police take notice 

The innovation quickly caught official attention. The Bengaluru City Police directly reached out to Tanwar after his demonstration went viral over the weekend. 

Through its verified handle, the police confirmed it had reviewed his AI-enabled helmet and described the concept as “innovative and interesting from a road safety perspective.” In a message addressed to “Mr Pankaj,” the department said it was keen to understand the technology in more detail and expressed willingness to engage further. 

Tanwar later shared the message, noting that authorities had asked for an opportunity to understand the specifics of his concept.