Some of us have trouble cooking, and even more trouble coming up with nutritious meals with what we have in the fridge.
I always had a hard time preparing meals. When I don’t have the mental energy to decide what to make, I often abandon meals altogether. So, even though I had some skepticism about AI, I decided to ask Meta’s new Muse Spark AI to help me determine the nutritional value of my lunch and decide what to make for dinner based on a few items in my fridge.
Muse Spark was newly released on April 8th After Meta wages a talent war to accelerate its AI ambitions. Meta’s press release touted Muse Spark in part as a personal AI tool that helps people track their health and plan trips.
According to a press release, “Health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, so we worked with a team of physicians to develop the model’s capabilities to provide helpful information about common health questions and concerns.”
With these off-the-shelf features in mind, I headed straight to lunch instead of letting an AI tool write for me.
My salmon lunch review
Author’s salmon bento. Katherine Lee/Business Insider
I had take-out lunch from my favorite Japanese bento shop near my home. Seared salmon, egg, mixed vegetables, raw salmon and fish roe are served over rice.
I uploaded photos of my meals to Muse Spark and asked them to create a detailed breakdown of all types of foods and sauces, as well as the number of calories in each item. We also asked them to create a labeled image of their meal, score it out of 10, and explain how it reflected on their nutritional needs for the day based on their biometrics.
Muse Spark has created a clear graph that shows the detailed calorie breakdown of the author’s diet. Screenshot/Business Insider
Muse Spark knew almost exactly what ingredients were in my meals.
Although I wasn’t sure of the weight of the ingredients or the exact type of oil used for cooking, I estimated that my salmon bento box had a total of about 760 calories. Muse Spark also estimated, based on the photos, that the dressings and sauces I love are so high in calories and sodium that there’s little room for additional salt intake in the day.
Muse Spark also said that based on the photos, the diet appears to be rich in micronutrients such as omega-3. However, AI thought it was lacking in dietary fiber, vitamin C, and calcium. Overall, my meal was rated 7.5 out of 10 and I was reminded that I am not a licensed nutritionist.
Where Muse Spark struggled was generating labeled images.
Muse Spark was unable to clearly label the author’s diet. Screenshot/Business Insider
The labeled words had no meaning. After one more failed attempt to request labeled images with readable text, I gave up and moved on to the next task.
dinner challenge
The author collected fridge leftovers and eclectic ingredients for visible photos and asked Muse Spark to suggest recipes for dinner. Katherine Lee/Business Insider
Now that Muse Spark knew what I had for lunch, I asked if it could gather up the leftovers and eclectic ingredients from the fridge, display them in photos, and suggest recipes for dinner.
I explained that I wanted recipes that were easy to prepare and clean, and had a wide selection of seasonings that were not shown in the photos. Here are Muse Spark’s suggestions and easy step-by-step recipes.
- Tomato stew chicken + roast potatoes + papaya side
- Light spaghetti alle vongole + blueberry oat smoothie
- Japanese style oyakodon + papaya blueberry salad
According to Muse Spark, this meal is designed to compensate for my lunch’s lack of fiber and vitamin C, with the option to moderately increase carbohydrate intake. They also suggest rinsing canned tomatoes to lower the salt content and avoid using salt or soy sauce.
“The main thing to watch out for is sodium. If you’re also consuming a lot of soy sauce the rest of the day, you could end up with more than 2,300 mg,” Muse-Spark says.
I didn’t realize that the Muse Spark’s freeze-dried strawberries were actually covered in sweet yogurt and the package said it was too sweet for a smoothie, but that option gave me cooking inspiration and showed me a clever way to finish off leftovers like half a papaya.
At the end of the day, I decided on Japanese Oyakodon and saved the other two recipes for another day.
Will you stop putting soy sauce on everything and leave out your favorite condiment option in your lunchbox? Even if you hear your muse spark telling you to stop in your head, it probably isn’t.