AI-written cookbooks serve up confusion and criticism

It had to happen sooner or later – although one wishes it happened later, much, much later. For fans of AI, cookbooks written by AI under a human nom de plume must be the new big thrill. Take Teresa J Blair‘s The Ultimate Crockpot Cookbook for Beginners, or Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, or The Ultimate Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook for Beginners, to name just three books cooked up by AI Teresa. The proof of the pudding – or, in this case, recipes – is still in the eating. And the proof by human eaters who cooked Teresa’s meals have not been reassuring. One reviewer-cook-taster tried out her/its Japanese hot pot. With James Joycean instructions like ‘Sprinkle a little of the chilli-ginger-garlic-sesame combine true between everylayer’ and ‘Give it a two-min simmer once it reveryes a boil before turning it’, the end product was supposedly ‘a soggy, limey mess’.

‘Surely, we detect some serious AIcism (prejudice against AI)?’ some of you boffins must be saying. Perhaps. But the verdict across the tasting palate spectrum – still confined to human taste, to be honest – has ranged from ho-hum to oh-bloody-hell-hounds.

Be that as it may, AI bhakts will probably have their taste buds primed to love these non-human-intervened cookbooks (the typos and strange language confirming no or very little human intervention) and meals. We wish them bon AIpetit.