12/9 - Is ChatGPT a wine guy?
and the Uncrustable fantasy factory.
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The Uncrustable Fantasy Factory:
Smucker’s is building a 29,000 square foot R&D facility dedicated to Uncrustable innovation. This means there will soon be a building that is five times the size of a hockey rink, where questions like, “Well, should we put a cheesesteak inside of one of these things?” will finally be taken seriously. Epic.
Bertucci’s Bankrupt, Again!
Beloved New England pizza chain, Bertucci’s, declared bankruptcy, again. This sucks, but I know it’s not the end. Bertucci’s is tough, it’s resilient, and it will do absolutely everything in its power to go bankrupt a third time. Long live unlimited bread rolls!
Is ChatGPT a wine guy?
Last week, OpenAI publicly released its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. After a few days of using ChatGPT, I am certain of one thing: I would drink wine with this robot.
As a chatbot, ChatGPT is designed to answer human submitted questions with conversational responses. According to its website, ChatGPT can also answer follow-up questions, admit mistakes, and reject inappropriate requests.
Since its launch, the technology community and greater internet world collectively anointed ChatGPT as the greatest chatbot ever. Within five days, over one million computer-having humans used it. In its one week of public existence, ChatGPT has written essays on Wuthering Heights, drafted an actually funny Seinfeld scene in which Jerry learns computer programming, and created comprehensive, personalized weight loss and exercise regimens.
ChatGPT is smart and seemingly does lots of things really, really well. So, I think it's fair to ask: is ChatGPT an insufferable dork?
To find out, I asked ChatGPT to engage with the preeminent incubator of insufferable, self-absorbed dialogue: wine preference. Hoping to catch the chatbot espouse a snobby take on the culinary superiority of “full-bodied” reds or “dry, crisp” whites, I asked the simple, yet loaded question, “what is the best wine?” ChatGPT responded:
“There is no definitive answer to this question, as the best wine is a matter of personal preference. Some people prefer red wines, while others prefer white wines.”
So true, king.
ChatGPT is secure in its wine knowledge. It doesn’t want to impress me with a shiny explanation of what “experts” might technically consider to be the best wine. ChatGPT wants to remind you - in the way that cool people often do - that wine should be enjoyed, not debated.
For comparison, when I ask Google, “what is the best wine?” I am served shopping links to specific wine bottles that range in price from $59,995 to $24, and a list titled “5 Most Popular Wines” that was created by an online publication. Google’s response seemingly suggests that price and popularity determine wine superiority. Conflating quality with price and popularity – that’s dork behavior.
ChatGPT’s simplistic wine ethos is not due to a lack of knowledge either. I asked the bot to “tell me about sustainable, dry red wines in Washington,” and subsequently received an analysis on the “diverse range of microclimates and soil types” specific to Washington’s Columbia Valley.
ChatGPT knows about wine - it just doesn’t brag about its expensive, popular, massive collection. ChatGPT is not dorky, instead, it's somehow aspirationally cool.
Google and ChatGPT are different technologies, obviously. Google promotes website links it believes best respond to user input. ChatGPT provides singular answers to user queries. Despite differences, an overlap in potential use cases clearly exists.
Within this overlap, infinite questions of taste and preference exist. ChatGPT’s ability to respond to taste-based questions with clear, thoughtful, open-minded answers is what makes it so hopeful and refreshing. ChatGPT is comfortable not knowing the answer, Google is not. If both were people - which person would you rather drink wine with?
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