I cook almost every day and I would use this feature. I also think it's kind of silly for people to be so upset about what (feels to me) to just be mostly useful.

At times like these I cant help but think of Principal Skinner. Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong!

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zrobotics 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Do you pay for NYT Cooking? B/c I did, and part of the reason was that the recipes were actually tested and I had confidence in them.

I don't want an AI to give it's best guess at what a recipe should be, if that was the case I'd just do a Google search and find one of the heavily polluted blogspam recipes for my query. The point of paying for NYTCooking was that the recipes were tested and normally trustworthy. It introduced me to new cuisines and recipes I hadn't tried before, and part of my willingness to experiment with a new dish was that I could trust the recipe. That's why I was paying for it,it was similar to the cookbook subscription my mom had years ago.

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jdlshore 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That still seems to be the case, though. The AI is for user-driven modifications to the recipe, like substitutions.

I’m not sure I would trust AI modifications myself, or how I feel about the feature, but it sounds like the base recipes are still human-tested.

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mmonaghan 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think you should read the article. You get the exact tested recipe and they only use AI when you instruct it to deviate.

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zrobotics 3 hours ago | parent [-]

For now.

The reason people are pushing back on this is that it looks like a start to them cutting their expensive test kitchen. Which is why I'm paying them.

	▲	cavemandaveman 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Why would they do that? There would be nothing differentiating them and nobody would pay for the subscription.
	▲	jibalt 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The reason people are pushing back is that they aren't very bright.

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jibalt 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I don't want an AI to give it's best guess at what a recipe should be

Then don't use this feature.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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not_a_bot_4sho 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I like the reference. A lot of people in tech don't realize they're actually Skinner when it comes to AI and what users want.

I spend around $10k in tokens each month, I live and breath it. But conversations with family and friends in other industry grounds me to the fact that not everyone is the same.

Listen to your users.

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boringg 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have to ask -- is that $10k work related spend but under your own personal budget or personal life management related? Im always curious what other peoples spend is on. Hope thats not to personal a question.

	▲	not_a_bot_4sho 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Almost entirely work, like >98%. I might spend more AI on personal things but that would require a personal life first lol

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i_love_retros an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

$10k a month! Are you mental?

What return have you got from that?

Also it's breathe not breath.

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1shooner 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Am I so out of touch

I don't think the HN audience generally appreciates how many people have fundamental problems with AI in it's current form. Today's ingredient replacement hint is tomorrow's comprehensively enshitified content product.

Also, there's a cultural dimension to cooking; it's not just getting a tasty dish out of it, there's provenance and process, the story and the cache. To some people automating that process defeats the purpose, and I bet a lot of those people would be the audience of a subscription recipe service.

	▲	coffeefirst 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Correct. The public is over sparkle buttons and bad search results. The future of AI integrations need to be subtle, useful, and not overpromise but add a big “AI makes mistakes not our fault” label on it. In cooking, maybe that looks like a discovery tool. It should also be possible to tag the recipe library to link back to videos of techniques. There’s plenty of cool stuff that makes sense without needing to scream “we made it AI!”

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archagon 18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> At times like these I cant help but think of Principal Skinner. Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong!

Funny you think AI critics are the ones doing this. Here’s Sam Altman, literally today: https://fortune.com/2026/10/28/openai-ceo-sam-altman-gen-z-d...

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reaperducer 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I would be different is this was yet another free, race-to-the-bottom, corner-cutting web site.

But this is New York Times Cooking. It's a subscription product that people pay hundreds of dollars for.

If they want yet-another-AI-cooking web site, there are thousands launching each day. They pay the Times because they want something better.

It's like finding out that the high-end meal you paid for at a sit-down restaurant was just DoorDashed in from a ghost kitchen down the block.

	▲	jibalt 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> I would be different is this was yet another free, race-to-the-bottom, corner-cutting web site. > But this is New York Times Cooking. It's a subscription product that people pay hundreds of dollars for. Which is why this opt-in feature isn't a problem. > If they want yet-another-AI-cooking web site, there are thousands launching each day. They pay the Times because they want something better. Which they get ... that hasn't changed at all. > It's like finding out that the high-end meal you paid for at a sit-down restaurant was just DoorDashed in from a ghost kitchen down the block. It's nothing like that.

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i_love_retros an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Because it's tacky. That's partly why people are upset. AI features and generated output is tacky.