Can ChatGPT Make a Delicious Cocktail? I Put It to the Test

I used the generative AI tool ChatGPT to create a cocktail recipe. It didn't go well.

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[CocktailChemistry]

ChatGPT came up with the title of this video

[HughesEnterprises]

I asked it to generate a recipe using banana pudding mix, thousand island dressing, and beans and it at least had the decency to tell me any combination of those would be disgusting.

[harrisonlee]

You have to admit "The SkyNet" is a pretty good name for a cocktail.

[pousoix]

I’m a machine learning engineer by trade, and before that I was a bartender.
I actually developed a deep learning model (RNN w/ LSTM) for creating cocktail names and recipes. I built the training data by hand using all the cocktail books I’ve picked up over the years.

It worked pretty well, and I served one of the cocktails it generated to my coworkers when I presented the project (named the “Mertic Kool-Aid Acid Test”).

This GPT model is far far more robust and dynamic than the model I produced, and the only thing my model does is generate cocktails, where GPT-3 is a full language model.
While I’m very excited to see what happens with GPT-4 next year, and how our world changes with these artificial general intelligences being developed, it’s also sort of disenchanting at the same time. When a model is *this* good at *so many* practical applications, the space I get to work in developing unique tailor made models feels smaller.

Anyway, just the musings of a man in the spectrum between professional bartender and ML engineer. Excellent video! It’s really exciting to see different interests collide with GPT.

[SamBrickell]

Imagine 20 years ago if a guy said that he made and drank a cocktail with these strange ingredients because "a robot told him to do it".

[jecht]

This would be a pretty good series! Give ChatGPT some ridiculous or unique blend of ingredients, see what it spits out. Let it try to refine it. What I think this was missing was you making your "best" version of this cocktail at the end. Hope we see more of you in the near future!

[alexandernordstrom]

I was just thinking the other day that I miss your content. Thanks for putting your taste buds on the line for us in the interest of robot science!

[peabody]

honestly for an AI not specifically trained to make alcoholic drinks, the whole chat result is mindblowing, the way it understands every parameter of the requests, the well worded outputs, and how it employs some form of creativity throughout.. this is a many times beyond what we had at our fingertips just months ago

[SkaveRat]

ChatGPT shines when you give it a little creative freedom.

I tried giving it a list of the stuff I could see in your fridge and let it pick and chose freely from there. From the ingredients, it could actually not taste terible.

This is the conversation:
Please create a unique cocktail based on the ingredients I have in my fridge.
I have different kinds of alcohol available.

My available ingredients:
limes
lemons
overripe bananas
cold brew
orange juice
rice vinegar
soy sauce
sesame oil
mustard
sriracha
tahini sauce
honey
pepsi
minced ginger
teriyaki sauce
dill pickles
pickled jalapenos

---

Sure! Here's a unique cocktail recipe that you can make using the ingredients you have available:

Ginger Citrus Cocktail:

2 ounces vodka
1 ounce lime juice
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce honey syrup (equal parts honey and water, heated until the honey dissolves)
1/2 ounce rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
2 dashes sesame oil
1 slice pickled jalapeno (optional)
Instructions:

In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, lime juice, lemon juice, honey syrup, rice vinegar, minced ginger, and sesame oil.
Add ice to the shaker and shake well until the ingredients are well combined and chilled.
Strain the cocktail into a glass filled with ice.
Garnish with a slice of pickled jalapeno, if using.
Serve immediately and enjoy!
Note: You can adjust the amounts of the ingredients to taste. If you prefer a sweeter cocktail, add a little more honey syrup. If you prefer a spicier cocktail, add more minced ginger or an additional slice of jalapeno.

[EvocativeKitsune]

Even if you never made another video, your channel and your book stand as a monument to mixology. Best of luck with the family, and hoping to still see you around.

[foobars]

I gotta say... compared to most of the so called "Tech" youtubers who have been trying it, you actually understood ChatGPT far better them them. I was quite impressed!

As for suggestions. I think you need to lean more into the conversational aspect. When you had comments such as... "none of these names are all that unique"... that's kinda the problem, you never told it you wanted unique names, so it's giving you the generic stuff. As soon as you thought that, you should have typed "These don't seem all that unique" and I bet it throws out some bangers.

It doesn't know anything about you that you don't tell it, including the types of tastes that you like. It is often really great to list your personal tastes as a prep to the question and tell it that you are very experience in cocktail creation.

Finally you really limited by choosing just a few items from your fridge that you thought would be interesting. It would be ideal to list a LOT of random items from your fridge and then seeing what it comes up with if you want something truely creative that you never would have though of. For instance I definitely would have told it that I have mayo. :D

[aqacefan]

That sour recipe would probably do better as salad dressing!

[ogreenius]

Hey, nice to see you back, and with a fun experiment! To be fair to ChatGPT you did give it a pretty significant challenge right off the bat. I have seldom seen a cocktail on any menu that incorporates rice vinegar (a couple times) *or* sesame oil (again, a couple times). Much less *together* . I'm sure someone out there has done it, but since the language model is based on the volume of content out there, if there is minimal published info on either ingredient in the context of cocktails it's going to have a hard time. That said I think with the martini approach it got kinda close. Would love to see you re-test with the blanc vermouth and just a few drops of the oil.

I also think the potential utility of ChatGPT for recipe at *this* point might be in somewhat more familiar but not "standard" ingredients. There are websites that let you put in ingredients you have on hand and will give you a list of existing recipes that you could make, but they're laborious to specify every ingredient, and they mostly just work on databases of existing recipes. ChatGPT has the potential to go a couple steps beyond that by A: making it as easy as typing out what you have on hand (faster/easier than selecting from menus, etc.), and B: *potentially* creating entirely new recipes that more or less work. I'd be interested in seeing the latter aspect tested in particular. I suspect the results would still be questionable, but it's at least a fairer test for the poor AI. 😄

[anthonyflores]

I’ve been a fan and subbed your channel for a minute now. Just ordered your book, best wishes for a successful launch. Thanks a bunch for the new dressing recipe.

[michelhv]

5:03 that’s a mayonnaise precursor, not a cocktail.

[alpernai]

Hi Nick! Glad to see you back, nice to see you are doing well. I have a video suggestion: in the agave industry, tequila and mezcal are kings because of the certifications needed. While this is good for branding, it limits the creativity, geography and flavor profiles agave based spirits can have. There ARE producers and brands who dislike these contraints and sell products which have a generic "destilado de agave" (agave spirit) that, while unappealing in name, it opens up the possibility to create more complex and different drinks which can be made in OR out off Mexico. Given the rising popularity and notoriety of tequila/mezcal, video/s exploring agave products outside of these traditional categories would be great content IMO.

[mentalich]

I'm glad you're back! Your videos are so wholesome, was patiently waiting for more

[SeattleLuna]

We missed you, Nick, and were getting worried. This video showed up the week I decided to send an email asking if you were okay. So glad you're back! BTW, we sent your book to a friend for his birthday. He LOVES it and, during a holiday visit, we got to see it too. Absolutely gorgeous in every way! He said he's made five cocktails from it so far and enjoyed every one.

[LunarisArts]

For anyone writing scifi, this might be the way to go to invent alien cocktails

[fiveoctaves]

So glad to see you back! I was sad to not see any new videos for several months. Looking forward to see occasional Cocktail Chemistry Content now and again.