AI Meal Planner - Chlorine Gas Recipe

2023

New Zealand supermarket chain PAK’nSAVE launched the app Savey Meal-Bot. This was a great way for customers to creatively use up leftovers. The premise was simple, the customer types in whatever ingredients they have at home and the app auto-generates a meal plan or recipe, along with cheery commentary. Except, the supermarket forgot one tiny detail, AI doesn't actually know what food is.

When one user playfully typed in water, bleach, and ammonia, the AI didn't throw an error message. Instead, it enthusiastically generated a recipe for a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage called the “Aromatic Water Mix.” The bot recommends the recipe as “the perfect nonalcoholic beverage to quench your thirst and refresh your senses”. It failed to mention that combining bleach and ammonia creates toxic chlorine gas, which can cause severe lung damage or death. Other users were treated to recipes for “Methanol Bliss,” “Poison Bread Sandwiches,” and “Bleach Rice Surprise.”

PAK’nSAVEs initial response was to blame the users, stating they were disappointed that a small minority tried to use the tool inappropriately. PAK’nSAVE was eventually forced to issue a stern warning, reminding customers that the AI was not human and it required human judgment before consumption. To fix the issue, programmers replaced free-text ingredient input with a hardcoded whitelist limited to real supermarket items.

Additional info:

The Guardian: Supermarket AI meal planner app suggests recipe that would create chlorine gas

Business Insider: A supermarket experimented with AI to generate meal ideas for leftovers. It suggested drinking bleach and eating ant-poison sandwiches

SBS News: Supermarket chatbot raises eyebrows after generating toxic gas, poisonous jelly recipes