The New York Times is testing a new AI feature for its Cooking app that helps users to modify recipes, and it’s sparked some drama among users. NYT Cooking senior editor Genevieve Ko announced the feature last Friday, which can be used to recommend substitutions for ingredients and cooking equipment, scale recipes to any number of servings, and “generally make our recipes work for what a cook needs at that moment.”
One of the examples given in the article shows a user asking to use baby spinach instead of kale, with the NYT Cooking app feature advising that because baby spinach wilts faster, it should be added during a later step of the recipe. Ko says it can also change the recipes around different pans and tools. Customized recipes are private and can’t be published or shared via the app. The AI modification feature is being rolled out gradually while the NYT monitors how it performs — it’s currently available to all Cooking subscribers on the iOS app, and will be more broadly available “soon.”
Some NYT readers have pushed back against the feature, citing concerns in the article’s comment section around the environmental impact of widespread AI adoption and the general impact that AI features may have on the user experience. When one user asked if there will be a way to disable the AI feature, Ko responded with “No, not at this time,” and noted that the feature is “completely optional to use.”
“Unbelievably disappointing to see,” said another NYT user. “I’ve always loved NYT Cooking and it pains me that the AI mandate has reached what used to be a wonderful and simple collection of recipes and notes from all sorts of different people.”
This isn’t the first time that AI has been used by the NYT Cooking app. Ko says it was used to convert imperial volume measurements to metric weight measurements in recipes two years ago, and a feature was added last year that converts recipes to halve or double the original serving size. The comments on the new AI feature announcement post have since been closed, but NYT spokesperson Jordan Cohen tells The Verge that this is standard practice:
“Comments on this article remained open for four days, with editors from Cooking taking care to answer questions, address concerns and engage directly with readers. We kept that conversation open to give readers a meaningful opportunity to share feedback and hear from the team. Closing comments on older articles is standard practice at The Times so that our moderators can focus on new discussions. We’re pleased to see that many members of our Cooking community are interested in exploring this tool and are already trying it out on our iOS app; they’re reporting good results.”