NYT Cooking’s AI sous-chef leaves subscribers cold

The New York Times is testing an AI tool for recipe substitutions and adjustments, but many subscribers say it undermines the human expertise they value in NYT Cooking.

The New York Times is facing an unexpectedly chilly reaction after adding new artificial intelligence tools to its Cooking app, a move that allows subscribers to ask for recipe adjustments and ingredient substitutions. Genevieve Ko, the senior editor and columnist overseeing NYT Cooking’s editorial side, said the feature was built after product and engineering teams identified a use case that readers wanted, and that it is being rolled out gradually to test speed and usage before wider release. According to the Times, the new tool is already available to Cooking subscribers on the iOS app, with broader access planned soon.

The feature is the latest in a series of AI additions to the service, following earlier tools that helped users convert measurements and scale recipes up or down. The focus this time is on practical substitutions: if a cook wants to replace one ingredient with another, the app can suggest how to adapt the recipe accordingly. Ko said staff had spent extensive time comparing sample outputs so that the chatbot’s responses would match the judgement of Times culinary editors and remain aligned with the paper’s standards.

But the launch has landed badly with many readers, who see it as an unwelcome intrusion into a product they pay for precisely because it is human-made. In the comments beneath the Times’s announcement, readers criticised the environmental cost of AI, questioned why a cooking app needed it at all, and objected to what they saw as a needless complication of something that should remain simple and editorially curated. One recurring complaint was that the feature should be optional to disable, although Ko responded that it is optional to use.

There was, however, a smaller cluster of favourable responses from subscribers who said the tool made everyday cooking easier, particularly for dietary restrictions and ingredient swaps. One reader said it had already helped convert recipes to gluten-free versions, while another argued that any feature that makes dinner preparation quicker or smoother is worth having. Even so, the overwhelming tone of the reaction suggests the Times has touched a nerve: for many readers, the appeal of NYT Cooking lies in the promise that the guidance comes from people, not software.

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Source: Noah Wire Services · Original