It was a steamy July Friday and I was feeling some kinda way about the state of the US. I had a few odds and ends in the fridge that were about to go over and needed to be used. My good cooking ideas had flown the coop months ago, along with my motivation to do anything more challenging than boiling water.
So I asked ChatGPT:
Please give me a recipe using chicken thighs, leftover rice, kalamata olives, russet potatoes, and frozen peas.
Fun fact: when you say please you always get a better result, even when you're talking to a robot. #themoreyouknow💫
On the first try, ChatGPT provided me with a short list of ingredients including "1 medium onion, finely," a combination of foods that lacked both spice and depth. I didn't mention that I had an onion on hand (I didn't), but ChatGPT had checked my pantry and noted that I had a lonely, months-old shallot. Thanks buddy!
How do I cook it?
I wouldn't be any kind of a cooking blogger if I didn't tell you the story of what happened when my long-lost uncle (who grew up on a potato farm) tried this dish and it gave him flashbacks to the Tuber Trouble of '86 and he ended up standing on top of the kitchen counter swiping at invisible kangaroos with a broom.
After things settled down he told me he enjoyed this dish very much and asked me to make it again the next time he visited.
Whenever I use ChatGPT I run through a little ethics exercise because I love and fear AI in equal measure. Or rather, I love AI but fear the ways humans may develop and use it. AI is our toddler right now, and it's learning from our good and bad habits. I may be an imperfect parent, but I try to be a good role model.
Here are the questions I ask myself:
Am I hurting anyone?
Am I stealing something?
Is this something I could/would pay someone else to do?
Am I using this for profit in a way that takes money out of someone else's pocket?
Do I need to provide credit to someone?
Can I use this as an opportunity to highlight someone else's work?
Could this be used to teach AI something that could be used in a harmful way?
In this case, it's hard to see how Delicious Chicken Thigh and Rice Skillet could hurt anyone but chickens. I used hormone- and antibiotic-free free-range chicken, so the ones I ate lived their best lives before they ended up on my plate. I like to think they were killed humanely, though I have no real way of verifying this.
If I dug a little deeper, perhaps this dish might hurt the people who work in chicken processing facilities. Those jobs are dangerous, the working conditions poor, and the pay lackluster. It might also harm the people who work at Walmart, where I purchased the chicken, who are paid enough to eat but not enough to eat free-range chicken. Chicken I purchased from a local butcher shop might have been of higher quality, had Walmart not destroyed all of the local mom and pop businesses, so add those people to the list as well.
None of this is AI's fault but it might have something to do with my long-lost uncle's meltdown.
Did ChatGPT steal this recipe from a recipe blogger? I doubt it because it didn't have a 5,000-word exposition. I'm sure MANY recipe bloggers have created a dish similar to this because it is the least complicated meal ever - chicken, rice, potatoes. There are only so many ways you can combine them! Just to be safe I just asked ChatGPT to provide the source for the recipe:
This recipe was created based on common culinary techniques and ingredient combinations, tailored specifically to use the ingredients you mentioned.
Could I/would I pay someone else to do this for me?
Yes and no! Solving the problem of what to cook for dinner is as old as time. Over the course of the past 10 years, I've probably paid for all of the currently available solutions - Once a Month Meals, 5 Meals in an Hour, meal kit delivery services. None of them are quite right - the meals are either too bland or too salty, use too many processed foods, or use cooking techniques that are great for saving time but result in subpar meals. I suppose I could hire a personal chef, but like, that's a level of bougie I aspire to but have not yet achieved.
So, recipe bloggers and meal system creators: this is a problem that needs solving! Hop to it! Solving this problem is a far more productive use of time than all the handwringing about AI destroying blogging everything.
Am I using this for profit? I dunno? If someone collects the NFT of this post I suppose I've profited from ChatGPT's labors. I'll comfort myself with the delusion that someone collected it because they enjoyed the words around the recipe, not because of the recipe itself.
That said, the question of whether "AI is robbing TRUE CREATORS of their livelihood" is a false flag and assumes that resources are finite. This kind of fear-based thinking has led to tribalism among creators of all types. Artists fear being replaced by image and video generators. Writers fear being replaced by LLMs. Paralegals fear being replaced by AI legal assistants.
The fact of the matter is that we will soon reach a tipping point where the internet is so populated by bots spewing AI-generated information (and misinformation) that the internet is no longer useful for humans.
Our challenge, right now, is to figure out what to do about that. AI isn't going away. No amount of arguing about it on Facebook is going to change anyone's mind, even though AI boosts those very arguments because algorithms love drama.
We are the product. We are responsible for what we give attention to. We are responsible for what we create.
We are also responsible for our failure to imagine ALL of the things that might come out of our coexistence with AI and creating plans to support/mitigate them. Maybe, if the internet is rendered useless, we go back to reading books and newspapers again. Maybe we demand proof of humanity in authorship. Maybe we have a great analog renaissance.
There are as many opportunities for greatness as there are for poor outcomes. The result depends on how humanity chooses to orient itself, assuming we survive geopolitics and global warming.
I feel like those of us experimenting with AI have an obligation to pour as many positive, benign uses into the model as we can to counterbalance the absolute garbage people are pouring into it for shits and giggles (or worse).
You didn't come here for a discussion of AI ethics, though. You came here for chicken.
Enjoy the recipe!
Delicious Chicken Thigh and Rice Skillet
Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on NOTE: I used boneless, skinless thighs and it worked just fine.
2 cups cooked leftover rice
1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 medium onion, finely chopped NOTE: I substituted one shallot
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
Juice of 1 lemon
Fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)
Instructions:
Prepare the Chicken Thighs:
Season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, paprika, and oregano. NOTE: I used WAY more paprika and oregano than the recipe called for - 1 tsp of each is not nearly enough!
Sear the Chicken:
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the chicken thighs, skin-side down, and sear until the skin is golden brown and crispy, about 5-7 minutes.
Flip the chicken thighs and sear the other side for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
Cook the Vegetables:
In the same skillet, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.
Add the chopped onion and diced potatoes. Cook until the onion is translucent and the potatoes begin to soften, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the minced garlic and cook for another minute, until fragrant.
Combine Ingredients:
Stir in the kalamata olives, cooked rice, and frozen peas. NOTE: I added additional paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper.
Pour in the chicken broth and lemon juice, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Return the seared chicken thighs to the skillet, placing them on top of the rice mixture.
Simmer:
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the skillet, and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken thighs are cooked through and the potatoes are tender. The internal temperature of the chicken should reach 165°F (75°C).
Finish and Serve:
Remove the skillet from heat and let it sit for a few minutes.
Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired.
Serve hot and enjoy your hearty chicken thigh and rice skillet!
ChatGPT created the perfect comfort food for the end of the world as we know it - flavorful, satisfying, and budget-friendly - while enabling me to go a few more hours without having to deal with humans.
Win win!
