by Chris McGinty
As I start this blog post, “Words” by Missing Persons came on Spotify. It must mean something. Speaking of words, AI. That wasn’t a complete sentence. I apologize. I’m pretty convinced that AI is like the internet. It’s largely useless to most people, for now. I’m sure it’s benefitting some niche industries and there are certainly people out there running the equivalent of dot com money grabbing, but what is AI for when no one lis… sorry. Got into the song. I’m sure I’ll get into all of my issues with AI at some point, but I want to talk about to do lists.
Three months or so ago, I thought to try out Chat-GPT as a way to create to do lists. I couldn’t get it to blow my mind with interesting fiction plots unheard of, nor did it have any original ideas on how to reverse climate change (which may be proof it’s not real, now that I think about it). Surely, it could come up with interesting goals (find the indigenous slart blat) and then give me cool to do list activities (see if a slart blat exists, if not thumbs down this entry). My first experiments with it actually turned out pretty good. Then I’m not sure why, but it started sucking and I’ve been fighting with it ever since. I say, “Come up with unique to do list activities,” and it comes back with, “brainstorm some unique activities.” Thanks AI. You’re so useful.
I decided to ask it for some super generic to do list items, since it wouldn’t stop sluffing off the job of coming up with interesting stuff on me. I asked in three general areas and I’m going to get into all of them, but let’s start with the shopping list. I asked, “Give me a simple grocery list of 30 food items and 15 household items.” This is what it gave me:
Grocery List (30 Food Items)
- Bread
- Eggs
- Milk
- Butter
- Cheese
- Chicken breasts
- Ground beef or turkey
- Bacon
- Salmon or another type of fish
- Rice
- Pasta
- Tomato sauce
- Canned beans (black or kidney)
- Canned tuna
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Lettuce or spinach
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Grapes or berries
- Peanut butter
- Jelly or jam
- Coffee or tea
- Snack items (e.g., chips, crackers, granola bars)
Household Items (15 Items)
- Dish soap
- Sponges
- Paper towels
- Toilet paper
- Laundry detergent
- Fabric softener or dryer sheets
- All-purpose cleaner
- Trash bags
- Aluminum foil
- Plastic wrap or storage bags
- Hand soap
- Tissues
- Lightbulbs
- Batteries
- Air freshener or candles
This list covers basic food essentials and common household necessities for most homes!
The food list was pretty good. I went to the store after work and got everything on the food list. I would give the total, but I bought a few other food things that might skew it. I paid attention to sales as well, so there’s that too. I ignored the household items list. I’ll get into details about why in a later part, but one reason is that my shopping cart was full from the food.
The main thing I’m going to have to worry about is that I’m going to have to find uses for the fresh food. I’ve been meaning to make a meal plan for a couple of… well, decades at this point. I’m going to definitely need to plan something for using the food I bought.
In later parts, I’ll show you the other two generic to do lists that it generated for me, and I will journal about the results of trying to follow the lists.
Chris McGinty is a blogger who is probably disappointing Alan Lakein by allowing AI to give him whole lists of C items.