Artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere lately – at work and school, on phones and computers, while shopping or visiting the doctor. It has come into homes as well, including the kitchen. With AI at your fingertips as you cook, can artificial intelligence make a trustworthy meal?
Recent developments in artificial intelligence have made AI extremely powerful. From conversations with ChatGPT to specific AI tools for automating work, managing budgets, planning trips, organizing tasks and more. With AI assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, you can simply ask them a question or give them a task.
While different AI solutions have been around for years, the technology behind these latest innovations is generative AI. NVIDIA explains generative AI as a series of algorithms to identify patterns in existing data and create new content based on those patterns. This gives AI the ability to learn as it receives new information.
The idea of AI pairs well with work in the kitchen. From planning meals and grocery lists to keeping your hands free while cooking, AI can help. But can AI assist in preparing a delicious dinner? Can the impersonal technology behind AI bring the same joy to food as planning from scratch?
The promise of AI in the kitchen
From setting a timer to creating an entire dinner menu, there are many ways to use AI in the kitchen. Modern AI can learn alongside you, adapting to the types of foods your family likes and your cooking preferences.
AI assistants: The modern sous chef
AI-powered assistants like Siri or Alexa are a great way to get quick answers to kitchen questions such as measurement conversions or ingredient substitutions. With generative AI, you can leave menu planning and recipe creation to technology.
You can ask your AI assistant to provide meal recommendations to fit a certain craving or use the specific ingredients you have on hand. You can even ask AI to create an entire menu around a certain mood. AI can take into account your dietary needs and flavor preferences. Over time, your AI assistant will incorporate your feedback – listening to suggestions you liked or disliked – to tailor future recipes to your tastes.
This can vary in scope. If you have shrimp on hand and ask your AI assistant to look up recipes, you might get a web search with recipe options to explore like kung pao shrimp or shrimp scampi. Generative AIs might go further and create a shrimp recipe that they think you’ll like.
Smart appliances for optimized prep and cooking
Manufacturers have begun integrating AI into many kitchen appliances. Smart ovens, smart fridges, smart dishwashers, smart pressure cookers and even smart coffee makers can bring AI assistance to everyday tasks.
With a touchscreen display, smart refrigerators can show what ingredients are inside for easy pantry monitoring and display recipes. Smart ovens, air fryers and Instant Pots let you manage cooking temperatures and times remotely. Smart dishwashers can cut down on power and water usage.
Now, appliances are also incorporating generative AI. Forbes describes some of the latest AI innovations in kitchen appliances. The new Flavorly app from GE can analyze the ingredients you have on hand and create recipes from them. Miele ovens have an internal camera and can suggest changes to cooking modes based on current images.
Like other generative AI assistants, these smart appliances will continue to learn over time as you use them. They can optimize your cooking and baking processes, saving you time and giving you space to explore more techniques.
The limits of AI cooking
AI brings a range of convenience to cooking and offers some personalization, but it doesn’t capture the essence of cooking. Making food is something rooted in culture and human nature. From exploring food through all the senses to connecting with family and friends over shared culinary history, there is much that AI recipes miss.
Browsing through your favorite cookbooks or food blogs to find a recipe engages your senses. It’s said that people eat first with their eyes. Seeing a picture of a delicious meal can inspire thoughts of tastes and aromas. Listening to AI read out a recipe to you often won’t spark the same cravings.
AI can also take away the creativity and expression that comes with choosing what to cook for yourself or your family. Drawing on your cultural experience, incorporating your favorite flavors and textures and experimenting with new ideas are essential to the human experience – but can’t be captured in a recipe generated by an algorithm.
AI kitchen disasters and missing information
There are also some practical setbacks when using AI in the kitchen. In its early days, AI sometimes returns the wrong answers. This can lead to potentially disastrous consequences in the kitchen. Mallory Arnold at Outside Online made an AI-generated recipe using peanut butter and artichokes. Janelle Shane at AI Weirdness shared an AI recipe for a brownie-like dessert that calls for one cup of horseradish.
Recipes created and sampled by creators can help you experiment with new ingredients. For example, if you are trying buttercup squash for the first time, an AI recipe creator can generate simple roasted buttercup squash and provide what the squash will taste like and how you might serve it. This gives you a tried-and-true recipe that engages your senses rather than a recipe based on arranged data.
When using AI assistants for recipe steps, you also often won’t get the tips and hints from the recipe creators. These can provide valuable advice from experienced cooks. For instance, a recipe for air fryer eggplant recommends salting the eggplant to draw out moisture before putting it in the air fryer. By providing only the basic recipe steps, an AI assistant omits this tip and leaves you with soggy eggplant.
The future of AI in the kitchen
Although it has come a long way in recent years, artificial intelligence likely isn’t ready to take over your job in the kitchen yet. The sensory experience of browsing for recipes and selecting foods is not easily matched by AI, but your favorite AI tools can still be helpful. As you learn to coexist with AI in the kitchen, relying on it for referencing facts, tracking groceries and checking recipes can streamline your cooking process and bring new inspiration to your meals.
Gina Matsoukas is the writer, photographer, recipe developer and founder of Running to the Kitchen – a food site focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network magazine.