A renowned New Zealand chef and restaurateur has urged Australians to take their creativity seriously, warning the rise of artificial intelligence cannot replace inventiveness.
Ben Shewry, the owner of award-winning Melbourne restaurant Attica, put the limits of AI to the test when he gave it a simple recipe prompt, then served the dish to 90 diners.
"Create a World's 50 Best Restaurants dish in the style of Ben Shewry," the chef known for his use of native Australian and New Zealand ingredients said he wrote into ChatGPT.
Taranaki-born Shewry received a comically overwrought recipe in return, titled The First Rain on Dry Earth, which featured paperbark-smoked kangaroo tortilla, edible clay crisp, native herb oil and "raindrop broth".
In a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday, he told a crowd he tried to prompt the artificial intelligence chat bot to improve its recipe, but it reiterated similar flawed ideas.
The dish was "soulless" and "dreadful", with the raindrop broth tasting like "thin dishwater".
"We served it anyway," Shewry said.
"I undertook this experiment because I wanted to prove a fundamental limitation of AI: it cannot have my next idea.
"It can only mimic what it knows about us, and do so less well."
He said true creativity does not rely on AI, and is instead honed by resilience, failure and human intelligence.
"If you want to live a creative life, don't let technology make a caricature of you," Shewry said.
"Hold up a mirror to its cold steely face, serve it in a dish of its own creation, and mock it right back."
Shewry recalled his early years in Melbourne when he landed the head chef role at Attica as a 27-year-old struggling to pay rent with an infant son.
He wasn't ready for the role, but leaned on his creativity and imagination to create his breakthrough dish – a crusted lamb shoulder – when the restaurant was near bankruptcy in 2005.
"My fingers would be bleeding under the nails as the combination of 100-hour weeks and the scrubbing of dishes without gloves took their toll," Shewry said.
"I knew that if I could use my imagination, we might just be able to save the sinking ship."
Attica was named Restaurant of the Year by the Good Food Guide in 2009, 2012, 2014, and by Gourmet Traveller in 2015.
Shewry said Australians must learn to recognise and harness one another's creativity.
"Every single one of us has the magical ability, through creativity, to become our best selves. Go out and find it," he said.
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