AI slop recipes are taking the internet by storm

EB GARGANO HAS been writing recipes online long enough to anticipate the seasonal rhythms of her web traffic.

- DAVEY ALBA AND CARMEN ARROYO

The Easy Peasy Foodie creator can predict when US readers begin searching for her stress-free turkey instructions, or when her Christmas cake will start its annual climb up Google search results.

This year, those familiar patterns are breaking. Instead of sending home cooks to her decade-old, well-tested recipes, Google increasingly inserts AI-generated summaries stitched together from bits of her work and others’ that often get the basics wrong. An AI-assembled version of Gargano’s Christmas cake, for instance, would have people cooking a 6-inch cake for 3 to 4 hours at 160°C. “You’d end up with charcoal!” she said.