I stumbled upon your restaurant column while wasting an afternoon on my employer's FT subscription. It was like discovering some new thrilling drug amid the office tedium, despite having zero interest in food writing. Thanks for keeping Gonzo alive and for passing on your excitement for something I thought I didn't care about. Your line describing a "phalanx of prawns huddled around a Parisian pissoir" to illustrate a cocktail-glass starter is high art. I look forward to LLMs doing better.
I wrote in my editors letter for the WA Good Food Guide this year:
We are human, not driven by an algorithm. Tech cannot taste and feel in the way that we can; it cannot observe a service or connect with a sommelier over a recommendation that’s just blown your mind. We don’t reduce critical thinking to thumbs up, thumbs down.
My extended version would read that, AI cannot feel the strain of too much butter, nor can it have conversations with a GP about whether this throbbing toe is gout. It cannot sit bolt upright in bed at 2.53am autopilot engaged as you throw yourself towards the hotel bathroom, thankful as you wretch long and hard that you didn't puke on the handmade and unique to each room silk wallpaper. Because this is what it is to be human, and to be someone who gets paid to eat, write, repeat.
Yes, a good writer has a distinct ‘voice’. One would never confuse you with, for example, Nigel Slater. But AI can easily replicate generic writing — the sort of magazine/newspaper articles on where to eat in Paris or a guide to hotels in Istanbul.
I don’t why humans are drawn to the writings of certain people but I do know that I do not want to read anything written by an AI but I will always read something written by Tim, and certain other writers (not just food writers). And that’s the nub of the problem with AI in my opinion. AI can only ever “learn” of “borrow” the experience of others and then “extrapolate” or “make stuff up”. It cannot physically observe (unless you possibly take a camera and microphone and an as yet not invented tasting device to a restaurant ), taste or experience what a human can (yet!). Any field that relies on human experience for its input will be impossible for AI to deal with. AI just cannot be truly creative if it cannot experience.
I stumbled upon your restaurant column while wasting an afternoon on my employer's FT subscription. It was like discovering some new thrilling drug amid the office tedium, despite having zero interest in food writing. Thanks for keeping Gonzo alive and for passing on your excitement for something I thought I didn't care about. Your line describing a "phalanx of prawns huddled around a Parisian pissoir" to illustrate a cocktail-glass starter is high art. I look forward to LLMs doing better.
Amen.
I wrote in my editors letter for the WA Good Food Guide this year:
We are human, not driven by an algorithm. Tech cannot taste and feel in the way that we can; it cannot observe a service or connect with a sommelier over a recommendation that’s just blown your mind. We don’t reduce critical thinking to thumbs up, thumbs down.
My extended version would read that, AI cannot feel the strain of too much butter, nor can it have conversations with a GP about whether this throbbing toe is gout. It cannot sit bolt upright in bed at 2.53am autopilot engaged as you throw yourself towards the hotel bathroom, thankful as you wretch long and hard that you didn't puke on the handmade and unique to each room silk wallpaper. Because this is what it is to be human, and to be someone who gets paid to eat, write, repeat.
Yes, a good writer has a distinct ‘voice’. One would never confuse you with, for example, Nigel Slater. But AI can easily replicate generic writing — the sort of magazine/newspaper articles on where to eat in Paris or a guide to hotels in Istanbul.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold"
A great piece Tim. And I absolutely recognised your feelings when you first read it because I shared them.
In the spirit of immersive reporting, delivered with a light seasoning of gonzo: https://www.oscarspleasure.com/a-cult-of-cru/
Onward ✊🏼
"ramases" 👌
Adverb of the day: "bravely".
AI will never know bravery.
I don’t why humans are drawn to the writings of certain people but I do know that I do not want to read anything written by an AI but I will always read something written by Tim, and certain other writers (not just food writers). And that’s the nub of the problem with AI in my opinion. AI can only ever “learn” of “borrow” the experience of others and then “extrapolate” or “make stuff up”. It cannot physically observe (unless you possibly take a camera and microphone and an as yet not invented tasting device to a restaurant ), taste or experience what a human can (yet!). Any field that relies on human experience for its input will be impossible for AI to deal with. AI just cannot be truly creative if it cannot experience.