Lazy Pages

The growing focus on health and nutrition has made recipe sharing an increasingly popular niche in cyberculture. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is entering our everyday lives, with large language models (LLMs) now utilised for generating meal plans, shopping lists, and even recipes. This raises an interesting question: is AI able to take the place of a recipe and content creator? My digital artifact will explore this question by directly comparing AI-generated low-calorie recipes with my original creations, framed under the theme: “Trying AI recipes so you don’t have to.”

There has been a lot of recent research that demonstrates why this is an important question to ask. Wide access to personalised dietary programs is often restricted due to multiple barriers, particularly cost (Guo et al. 2025). Because of this, AI tools such as ChatGPT can offer a promising alternative, providing affordable dietary guidance. At the same time, there are limitations. While AI is becoming more and more capable of generating and adapting recipes, some argue that it still struggles to produce genuinely original or satisfying culinary innovations (Spence & Velasco 2025). I also noted that there is limited research on how LLMs perform when asked to create specific dishes altered to meet nutritional requirements, such as reducing calories while preserving flavour. My DA will help explore this gap in practice. 

The concept of my DA is straightforward. Each week, I will select a tasty meal that I have already adapted to a low-calorie alternative – foods like pasta dishes or curries. At the same time, I will prompt an AI system to generate a healthier, low-calorie version. I will then cook both dishes, document the process through photos and short-form video, and critically compare them for taste and accuracy in nutritional information. The results will be shared primarily on TikTok, with supporting content published on a website for full recipes – both mine and the AI’s.

The target audience is adults who enjoy cooking and experimenting, and those interested in eating more healthily or trying to lose weight. By presenting side-by-side comparisons of AI versus human recipes, my project will provide both entertainment and practical value. Viewers will see whether AI’s creations are worth trying or sharing, while also receiving reliable recipes they can recreate themselves.

This DA connects directly to future cultures by examining the role of AI in creative practices such as recipe creation and whether it is contributing positively to cyberculture. Given ongoing criticisms of AI’s lack of originality, authorship, and accuracy, this project provides an opportunity to test these claims in practice. By directly comparing AI-generated recipes with human-created alternatives, my DA will offer both a critical experiment and an engaging way to evaluate how AI measures up in an area that is personal and creative like food.

By the end of the semester, I aim for my DA to be a provider of practical recipes and comparisons, but also contribute to a wider discussion: is AI dooming the future of recipes, or is it instead contributing innovation and accessibility in the kitchen?