You are invited
So, I have been playing around with multiple AI bots during the last couple of weeks. Yes, they all are impressive. Yes, the more I have explored and have learned about the possibilities, the more I am at loss for words. Sure, I have some concerns and apprehensions around some of the possibilities. But then, this medium post is not about judging Artificial Intelligence.
Today, I am here to share with you the tale of how I, a mere mortal, have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to plan the most epic holiday party of all time. No detail has been left to chance, and I am confident that this shindig is going to be the talk of the town. At least for a few days. So grab a cup of eggnog, or mulled wine, sit back, and enjoy the ride as I take you on a wild journey through the world of AI-powered party planning.
Did I say you all are invited? So come join me in celebrating the holiday season in style, and don’t forget to bring your dancing shoes! But be warned, this party is not for the faint of heart. We’ve got robots, algorithms, and plenty of eggnog and mulled wine to go around.
Let’s go!
First I asked my AI friend to help me plan the holiday party:
It’s a bit generic, I thought. Nothing a mere mortal with some party planning experience wouldn’t have thought of. But point (6) showed that the bot wants my guests to be safe. That’s you. So brownie points for that.
Then I asked AI for some ideas for decorating the exterior of the house.
I did not quite like these suggestions as they were too generic again. I could have persisted and asked for more specifics. But then the party is going to be indoors. And in this Michigan cold weather, I bet you are not going to spend more than 2 or 3 minutes outside looking at these decorations. So, I figured I won’t bother my AI friend anymore. I simply decided to use the input above and fed the details into Stable Diffusion to generate an image of an imaginary ranch style house with these decorations.
This is where we will be partying y’all!!
Welcome home.
Not too shabby, huh?
Come on in…
This is my living room.
Ah, Thank you.
Cleaned this room and decorated it just this morning.
Grab a drink and relax a bit. Make yourself at home. We will start serving dinner in a few minutes.
What’s on the menu, you ask?
Well, I asked the bot to give me a few combinations for a 6 course meal. I was thoroughly impressed with this list. I know I did not have to stick with a particular combination and I could have mixed and matched. But to make my planning a bit easier, I decided that “Combination 3” would be my menu for tonight’s party.
I need the recipes, right?
At first, there was some confusion when I asked for recipes for all the dishes from combination 3. My AI friend behaved like a human for a while. Forgetting things and putting words in my mouth. Don’t worry!! I did not yell and asked the friend politely a couple of times to recreate the recipes.
After some clarifications, I got what I wanted. Mostly, I should add.
He did mess up the salad and gave me a recipe for a different salad. But then, I would have preferred this Arugula salad anyway.
With the recipes in front of me, I needed to do some grocery shopping.
So, I asked the bot to put together a grocery list for the above dishes I was going to cook. I was surprised with what the bot came up with. During an earlier experiment I was running, it did a much better job of creating an actual list and not measures from the recipes. But I think I can still work with this list. After all, I have got some experience with grocery shopping and I know how to extrapolate this for 20 people.
Phew!!
I went grocery shopping last night and filled up my refrigerator and pantry. The stores were busy, I tell ya. I was exhausted.
[Note to Self: Next time, I should ask my bot friend to write a code to generate a JSON output which I could use with an Instacart API or something.]
After a good night’s rest, I woke up this morning with lots of excitement. The big day is finally here. There was so much to do. But first, I had to start cooking.
Done.
<Tapping glass with a spoon>
“Ting. Ting. Ting..
Thank you for coming again. The table has been set. Why don’t you all find a seat for yourself around the table and make yourself comfortable?”
Well. Time has come to share with you all what I have cooked. It’s a vegetarian menu as you must have figured out by now.
Oh..By the way, if you are a vegan, let me know. I have vegan versions of some of these dishes that have dairy and eggs in them.
Bon Appétit! Don’t be shy now!
I described all of the above dishes as best as I could (not the recipes) to Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Dall-E, and let them generate photos of these dishes I would be serving. I picked the pictures I liked the most.
Hope you enjoyed the dishes I prepared.
More eggnog? wine? Or coffee?
I see you’ve been meaning to ask me something. Let me guess. You want to know who picked the music that’s playing from the time you entered the house. Am I right?
Well. What’s a Holiday party without some holiday music!! So, I asked my friend to put together a playlist of “Holiday Songs”. The first list he came up with had all the usual suspects. So, I asked for a more creative and a unique playlist.
I think I kinda like this playlist he suggested.
My final experiment was to have my AI friend generate a code for me which I could use to automatically create this playlist on YouTube, which then I could share here.
I will spare you all the lurid details of my back and forth exchange with the bot. But let me tell you. This took more time than I had imagined. I was thoroughly drained by the time I got this script to work. Sort of. That’s mostly because my programming days are well behind me and I literally had to use the bot friend to help me with debugging the code he generated, every step of the way. In the end, it took me way..way more time than manually creating the playlist. But in the spirit of this fun exercise, I had to stick with it till it got done. Ouch.
Check it out.
For YouTube playlist newbies, you should be able to scroll forward or backward in the playlist using the arrows at the bottom.
As I began this journey into the world of AI-powered holiday party planning, I quickly realized that this was going to require all of my cunning, wit, and sheer determination to pull off. I spent countless hours pouring over data, analyzing algorithms, and trying to understand the ins and outs of machine learning. Nah, just kidding. It was a fun experiment. There really was only one bumpy spot I hit.
And now, as the big evening draws to an end, I hope you will remember this party for days to come.
Just try not to go too crazy with the mulled wine, okay? I have spiked it up. We don’t want any robots getting too rowdy.
Before I forget, here is a souvenir of sorts from the party. A groupfie we took. You may not remember taking this photo. I was so drunk that I do not remember either. See if you can spot yourself somewhere in there.
If not, oh well. I promise I’ll do a better job next time.
Happy Holidays!!
