Real Agent Cases

Turn a handwritten family pie recipe into an infographic with Gemini and ChatGPT (it garbled the recipe)

Posted
by Lance Ulanoff (TechRadar)
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.

FailureThe source says the agent did not get the job done.

What went wrong: Gemini and ChatGPT misread the handwriting and invented words and steps; repeated corrections didn't fix it.

Context: In a comparison test: from a head-to-head chatbot review, not a standalone agent test.

Outcome

A TechRadar writer photographed his mother's 30-year-old handwritten apple pie recipe and asked Gemini and ChatGPT to turn it into a clear, cartoon-style infographic. Gemini's version was cute but full of misspellings and nonsense like 'Dash nutamon' and a cheese grater, and corrections didn't fix it; ChatGPT did marginally better but left out details. Claude gave the clearest, if plain, recreation. He called Gemini's first try unusable and kept his paper original.

Agent

Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude

Prompt Original prompt

Exact prompt as published in the source.

Turn this recipe into a useful infographic. I want entertaining and colorful but clear cartoon-style art. The instructions should make sense. Also, this recipe was written on some paper that includes extraneous information. Please ignore that.
Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn a photo of a handwritten recipe into an accurate, clean typed recipe I can check before anything is designed.

Fill in before running:
- Photo of the recipe: [ATTACH]
- Anything hard to read or written elsewhere on the paper: [NOTES]
- What the dish is: [e.g. apple pie]

Rules:
- First transcribe the recipe word for word as plain text; mark anything unreadable as [unclear] instead of guessing.
- Ignore printing or notes on the paper that aren't part of the recipe.
- Ask me about every [unclear] item before going further.
- Only after I confirm the text, format it as a recipe card or infographic using exactly the confirmed wording.
- If a site asks for a login, a CAPTCHA or payment details, stop and hand control back to me.
- Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- Check every quantity in the final card against the transcription I approved, and list any differences.

Output: Step 1: a plain transcription with [unclear] flags. Step 2 (after my OK): the formatted card.

You'll know it worked when: every ingredient and step matches the original, with no invented words.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/sorry-chatgpt-and-gemini-cant-improve-on-my-moms-handwritten-apple-pie-recipe

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