New York Times adds more AI to Cooking app; users unimpressed
| Source: HN | Original article
The New York Times has added additional AI features to its Cooking app, prompting a wave of user disappointment.
The New York Times has rolled out a new AI‑driven tool inside its popular Cooking app. The feature, which suggests ingredient substitutions, is now live for a large share of iOS subscribers and will be broadened to the rest of the Cooking audience in the coming weeks. Senior editor Genevieve Ko says the newsroom spent “countless hours” testing the chatbot’s answers against culinary standards, and that the tool is optional for users – although there is no dedicated opt‑out switch.
The move marks another high‑profile experiment in embedding generative AI into consumer‑facing products. By automating recipe tweaks, the Times hopes to make cooking more flexible for readers who face missing ingredients or dietary constraints. Yet the reception has been overwhelmingly negative. An analysis by Nieman Lab of 171 public comments – 12 of which were posted by Times staff – found roughly 77 percent of reader feedback to be critical, with many callers demanding a way to disable the feature entirely.
Why the backlash matters is twofold. First, it underscores the tension between editorial control and algorithmic assistance in trusted content domains such as food. Second, it offers a real‑time barometer of how audiences react when AI is layered onto established brand experiences, a pattern echoed in recent AI roll‑outs at GitHub and Google.
Going forward, the Times will likely monitor sentiment closely and may introduce a clearer opt‑out or refine the substitution logic. Observers will also watch whether the AI capability expands beyond ingredient swaps to unit conversion, scaling or even full‑recipe generation, and how other media outlets respond to the push‑back as they contemplate similar integrations.
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