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What's Happening
- The New York Times is testing an AI feature in its Cooking app that recommends ingredient and equipment substitutions.
- The tool adjusts cooking instructions based on user requests, such as altering the timing for adding baby spinach instead of kale.
- The Times released the feature to all iOS subscribers and plans a wider rollout soon.
Why It Matters
The integration of generative AI into consumer lifestyle apps shows publishers attempting to add interactive value to static content. The immediate user backlash highlights the tension between corporate AI initiatives and consumer preferences for human-curated experiences.
The Context
- The NYT Cooking app previously used AI to convert imperial volume measurements to metric weights and to scale serving sizes.
- Customized recipes generated by the new tool remain private and cannot be published or shared within the app.
What They're Saying
- NYT Cooking senior editor Genevieve Ko stated the tool is designed to "generally make our recipes work for what a cook needs at that moment."
- In response to users asking to disable the feature, Ko noted there is no opt-out mechanism but emphasized it is "completely optional to use."
What to Watch
- Monitor whether the Times adds an opt-out toggle in response to subscriber complaints about environmental and user experience impacts.
The Bottom Line
The New York Times is pushing forward with AI-driven recipe customization, testing subscriber tolerance for automated features in traditionally human-curated spaces.