https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/16\/technology\/how-to-use-ai-as-a-shopping-assistant.html?searchResultPosition=8<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nLast week, I walked you through how to use A.I. to prepare for the dreaded office meeting. Now let\u2019s take the money you\u2019ve earned from all that hard work and move on to something more fun: shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most time-consuming part of shopping for many is the research process: poring through review sites and plucking out the item that\u2019s right for you, whether it\u2019s coffee equipment or a hotel room that is both convenient and affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll cover what A.I. can do to help make informed purchasing decisions quickly and efficiently. For this exercise, I\u2019ll focus on using chatbots, including Microsoft\u2019s Bing, Google\u2019s Bard and OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT to do product research. I\u2019ll also explore how to use ChatGPT plug-ins, a more recent development, for creating grocery lists and planning travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Product research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The typical research process is to do a web search and read a bunch of reviews. A.I. chatbots can streamline this process. Microsoft\u2019s Bing and Google\u2019s Bard, which are hooked up to search engines by default, are currently the best equipped for getting up-to-date product recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As is always the case, the right prompt will get the best results. For this example, you would type something like: \u201cAct as a shopping assistant. I am looking for a coffee bean grinder for French press that is well reviewed. It should cost no more than $200.\u201d In response, Bing and Bard will list examples of grinders that fit the criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can also ask the chatbots tougher questions, like which household appliances will be long lasting. You could type something like, \u201cAct as a shopping assistant. I am looking for a refrigerator. Which brands have the highest reliability rating and what are some well reviewed refrigerators from them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bots will tell you which appliances have the highest reliability ratings from publications like Consumer Reports and The Times\u2019s own Wirecutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever you\u2019re using a chatbot, it\u2019s a good idea to check the results for accuracy. But doing a web search to double check the bots\u2019 recommendations is a whole lot faster than manually searching from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grocery shopping<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Now let\u2019s talk about the future. OpenAI is developing a plug-in platform, which is essentially a third-party app store that allows you to add capabilities to ChatGPT. Currently only subscribers who pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus can use plug-ins, including the ones for web browsing and shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To use plug-ins if you\u2019re a paying subscriber, go to the ChatGPT settings menu, click \u201cbeta features,\u201d and turn on \u201cplugins.\u201d Then, in the ChatGPT app or website, go to the GPT-4 tab and click \u201cplugins.\u201d Then click on the downward arrow and select the plugin store. This is where you can search for apps. Let\u2019s start with one for the grocery delivery app, Instacart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Try typing a prompt like, \u201cI am making pasta Bolognese. What\u2019s a good recipe and what are the ingredients?\u201d The chatbot will list the ingredients that go into the dish and offer to generate a shopping list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clicking on the shopping list will bring you to Instacart, where you can automatically load all the items into your cart and choose a grocery store to purchase them from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you don\u2019t want to pay for ChatGPT Plus, you can still use A.I. for grocery shopping. Try asking Bing for a recipe, then ask it for the shopping list of required ingredients. In one particularly neat trick, you can even ask it to organize your shopping list by grocery store aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Travel planning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There are also plug-ins from travel sites like Kayak and Expedia that help with trip planning. For example, you may be looking for a well-rated hotel within walking distance of tourism sites for up to $500 a night \u2014 a process that would typically require wading through reviews and <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can also use the Expedia plug-in to search for flights. For example, \u201cI am trying to fly to Milan, Italy from San Francisco on July 28. What are my best options with short layovers?\u201d ChatGPT will then load Expedia\u2019s results for the shortest flights. It returned three flights from KLM, Delta and United, all with single layovers for no more than two hours. (I tried the same prompts with Bard and Bing, which showed generic information and inaccurate ticket prices \u2014 not helpful!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCommentary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is the part of new technology that has recently rattled the public eye. AI being used for simple tasks can be exciting yet frightening. Should we be giving so much information to a computer program? How else can AI help us? I think this notion of using AI for grocery shopping is an interesting application of the technology. It is a way for the everyday person to use this complicated, cutting edge technology for the small tasks, like grocery shopping. I think it will eventually become important to integrate AI into the process of buying groceries. So, as designers, how can we create a user friendly way for AI to integrated into simple tasks like grocery shopping? How can engineers and designers come together to give users the best experience with emerging AI technologies?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doing product research, making grocery lists and booking travel can be easier with tools like ChatGPT. Published: June 16, 2023 Writers: Brian X. Chen Link: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/16\/technology\/how-to-use-ai-as-a-shopping-assistant.html?searchResultPosition=8 Last week, I walked you through how to use A.I. to prepare for the dreaded office meeting. Now let\u2019s take the money you\u2019ve earned from all that hard work and move on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":15343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[351,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-15340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science-tech","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-grocery-shopping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15340"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17138,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340\/revisions\/17138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}