AI-generated junk is ruining everything on the internet, so it's no surprise to see that large language models are corrupting the cookbook market as well. When we're looking for gifts this holiday season, now we're going to have to double check that every author we buy from is a real human.

Journalist Matthew Kupfer posted a delightful (and ominous) thread on X this week, detailing how a thoughtful gift from his parents ended up raising an eyebrow. It's hard to tell if this is just spewed out by an LLM or of it was perhaps machine translated from non-English text, but it's as ridiculous as it is shoddily made. Heck, even the author's bio raises red flags.

Here's the book: "The Complete Crockpot Cookbook for Beginners" for 2024 (gotta keep up with crockpot innovations) by Luisa Florence.

All looks good — except for 2,000 days, which seems kinda arbitrary and a few to many for one year. But no big deal. pic.twitter.com/1J2NLteDLU

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

Below, you'll find Kupfer's thread highlighting just how outrageous this book really is. If you have this on your wishlist, now's the time to reconsider.

It has a brief history of the crockpot in stilted English:

"In the 1940s, when women were required to work in locations that were further away from their homes, it was the first time it was used in the United States..."

Very eusphemistic way of describing WWII, but okay...

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

This got me to wondering about the author, "Luisa Florence." I looked her up and, lo and behold, there is hardly a trace of her outside Amazon.

Here's her photo. Looks like an AI-generated GAN image to me — note the divergent earrings, weird background, & missing left shoulder. pic.twitter.com/czUDawRY6r

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

So how is the cookbook itself? Hard to believe, but it has great reviews!

Granted, many of them look like someone asked ChatGPT to make multiple versions of the same review: working professional, new crockpot, health food for family, great beef recipe, blah blah blah... pic.twitter.com/mIUULTQANh

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

In any case, I'm looking forward to trying some AI-generated recipes.

And lest you think this is a unique situation, it is not.

Welcome to the future! https://t.co/XEl29H8W4X

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

P.S. Signora Florence, if you're out there and not the hallucination of an LLM, I'm really sorry for suggesting you're an AI, but you aren't doing a great job of sounding human. 🙏

/END

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

It could just be poorly translated (I have my doubts), but they’re definitely using AI in promoting the book (author photo, some of the reviews).

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 19, 2024

Via Matthew Kupfer.

[Image: ELEVATE, Matthew Kupfer]