NYT Cooking app tests AI that rewrites recipes for you

The New York Times is testing an AI feature in its Cooking app that lets you change a recipe by asking. You can swap an ingredient, use a different pan, or scale the dish to any number of servings. It is available now to all Cooking subscribers on iPhone and iPad, and some longtime readers are not happy about it.

What it does

Genevieve Ko, a senior editor at NYT Cooking, announced the feature. She says it helps make recipes "work for what a cook needs at that moment." It suggests substitutions for ingredients and cooking equipment, and it can adjust a recipe around the pans and tools you own.

One example shows a user asking to use baby spinach instead of kale. The app advises adding the spinach at a later step, because baby spinach wilts faster. On screen, the tool appears as a chatbot text box at the bottom of a recipe. You must agree to some terms and conditions before using it.

Privacy and rollout

Your customized recipes are private. They cannot be published or shared through the app. The Times is rolling the feature out gradually while it watches how it performs. For now it is only on the iOS app, with wider availability promised "soon." The material does not say when an Android version or a web version might arrive.

The pushback

Some readers objected in the comments under the announcement. Their concerns included the environmental impact of widespread AI use and what AI features might do to the experience of using the app. One reader called it "unbelievably disappointing" and said the app used to be a simple collection of recipes and notes from many different people.

When a user asked whether the feature can be switched off, Ko answered, "No, not at this time." She added that using it is "completely optional." The comments have since been closed. A Times spokesperson, Jordan Cohen, told The Verge they stayed open for four days and that closing comments on older articles is standard practice.

Not the first AI in the app

Ko says AI has been part of the app before. Two years ago it was used to convert measurements by volume, such as cups, into metric weights. Last year, a feature arrived that halves or doubles a recipe. Cohen said many Cooking readers are already trying the new tool and reporting good results.

What to know

• It only works if you open the chat box and agree to the terms.
• The original recipe stays as the editors wrote it.
• There is no setting to hide the feature for now.