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As I sit here, eating rich, juicy dumplings made by dedicated human chefs, I ponder the role of AI in the food industry. Are you grieving? Specifically, I’m passionate about a small, healthy space that AI is entering: cookbooks. AI-generated recipe Cookbooks are nothing new, but they’re more popular than ever, and they’re better at impersonating human authors than ever before. These AI cookbooks are sneaky, but they’re not perfect, so you should be able to decide if it’s something you really want to buy. Fortunately, there are some red flags to look out for.
By the way, the gyoza was from East Wind Snack Shop. Human chef and owner Chris Chan has written a cookbook. Extremely delicious Chinese foodsold here along with other great cookbooks.
AI-generated cookbooks are now available
Recent posts about X Matthew Kupfer shows how creepy AI cookbooks can be. Mostly cheerful, but alarm quickly rises when you realize that someone has used AI to generate an “author” bio and photo.
Credit: @Matthew_Kupfer/X
It’s clear that AI-generated recipes and cookbooks are already out there. That’s fine. That’s what it is, minus the knowledge and effort I’ve silently scraped from all the recipes on the internet. Even companies like Instacart are leveraging AI to generate recipes, or at least they’re upfront about it. They also note that due to the nature of its creation, the recipe “may not be perfect.” AI recipes are likely untested and unedited, and you may end up with a strange meal in some way, but we hope it’s not inedible.
But questionable recipe quality is only part of the problem. A cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes. They are years of hard work, mistakes, successes, great photos, experiences, and stories. Those stories are woven into the recipe of sharing a person’s life. I myself am an aspiring cookbook author, so maybe I’m a little sensitive, but it’s imitations that make me nervous. Long prose about fabricated human experience and fake inspiration, sorry, I’ve lost my appetite.
AI shows
You can’t rely on the usual methods of checking the author’s photo or searching only for hardcover books, so you may have to dig a little deeper and trust your instincts. There are a few things to keep in mind when scouring cookbooks.
strange cover claim
The title may seem innocuous, but complete crockpot X Any other joke or promise in the post, subtitle, or cover can be a total bonus. For example, “2000 days of easy and delicious recipes” sounds like an extreme number of days, and the words seem to be missing.
awkward phrasing or repetition
Speaking of missing words, this tip is from the following post. How to tell if you’re chatting with a bot, which also applies to cookbooks. Be careful of grammatical mistakes. Of course, be wary of weird robotic phrasing or repetition. As Jeff Somers says in the aforementioned post, “Even the best conversational AI often suffers from strange intricacies and inconsistencies in language.”
Even if you feel that a sentence like “This electric cooker is used to prepare meals, especially when you want to leave the cooking uncontrolled for hours on end,” doesn’t sound right, you can be critical. Not. This is not how most people describe clay pot cooking.
Repetition of phrases is also a feature of AI writing. I intentionally vary my vocabulary when I write because I know it’s boring to read the same words over and over again, but AI doesn’t get bored. It will even out. All kidding aside, using another phrase is terrible. You wouldn’t believe how many times I repeated the “What is a Crock-Pot?” section. There are expressions that are exactly the same, or nearly the same, as “a crock pot, or slow cooker, is a pot made of ceramic…” That’s a lot.
Difference between publisher and self-publishing
Many AI-generated cookbooks are sold online, and they are self-published. You can probably see why. At the moment, most established publishers are interested in signing deals with human authors. It’s a shame that there are so many self-published authors out there who write great books, and that big publishers make it difficult for even great books to get noticed. However, if it’s a cookbook, check which publisher it’s published by. Be careful if it says “self-published” or “independently published.”
Errors in major ingredients
If possible, take a close look at some of the recipes in this book. The AI usually doesn’t make egregious measurement errors, like recommending 2 cups of salt, but sometimes it leaves something out. If your recipe is titled “Barley Chicken Salad with Fresh Herbs” and you can’t find herbs or barley in the ingredient list, you may be dealing with an AI cookbook. Similarly, low blood sugar cookbooks, this vegan cookbook Be wary of recipes that don’t fit your diet, as they’ve been stolen by the AI.
When AI imitates us, it can hurt our human feelings, but it’s these kinds of errors that make untested and unedited recipes dangerous. Vegans are more likely to find butter or mozzarella listed in the recipe, but beginners following low-glycemic recipes may not catch the starch mistake.
Tips for Successful Cookbook Shopping
Don’t be fooled by the author’s photo or biography
AI generates photos with terrifying ease. Read here for tips On identifying fake human photos (two words: wrong earrings). If you’re not sure, you can also look up the author. The AI “author” doesn’t have a history outside of cookbooks, so you don’t have to do a lot of research.
Check AI-generated reviews
AI reviews are suspiciously similar, appearing word for word, with 20 or 30 reviews posted on the same date or within a limited time frame. Once you see it, the next step is to click on the 1 or 2 star reviews. They’re probably saying they’re human and the cookbook was generated by an AI.
shop at a bookstore
what?brick and mortar book store. If you’re buying new, rest assured that bookstores like Warwick’s and Greenlight Bookstore buy their inventory from trusted publishers. If you’re buying second-hand, at least flip through the book and thoroughly check for any of the red flags listed above. Plus, you’ll be supporting an actual bookstore, so that’s great too.
