People Inc. Expands 28-Kitchen Recipe Studio as AI Slop Disrupts Food Search
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 20
People Inc. Expands 28-Kitchen Recipe Studio as AI Slop Disrupts Food Search
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 20
Summary
People Inc. is ramping up social-video output from a 28-kitchen, 40,000-square-foot test complex outside Birmingham, Alabama, making human-developed and repeatedly tested recipes the centerpiece of its food strategy.
Neil Vogel says the push responds to AI-generated recipe clutter and weakening search traffic, arguing readers increasingly want dishes created by cooks rather than chatbots that can produce unusable instructions.
The publisher is leaning on the scale of brands including Allrecipes, Food & Wine and Southern Living, with recipe developers, stylists and photographers producing content designed to signal authenticity.
The bet is that in food media—where bad instructions quickly fail—verified human testing can become a competitive edge as generative AI floods the internet with low-quality content.