A few weeks back, an AI mentor of mine landed in London for a few days. I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours over lunch with Scott Schang, discussing all-things AI; plus a few other interesting topics, too.
We went to a great Italian restaurant in the West End called Mortimer House Kitchen. And there’s a funny AI story attached to how we ended up there.
Scott is an incredibly easy-going person – always open to new ideas and new adventures. (The perfect person to explore the new, unfolding world of AI). So, no surprise that when I asked if he had any food preferences, he responded that he was interested in sampling local cuisine but basically, anything would be fine.
This should have made choosing the restaurant the easiest thing in the world. Except that I have to confess to being a bit pickier than Scott.
So, rather than spend hours trying to think of a suitable place, I decided to put ChatGPT to the test.
I’ve been using ChatGPT very heavily over the last three months in my quest to plan out and build PerformaGo; but that use hasn’t strayed over to personal requests and needs. So, I was curious to see what results I might get if I used it in a non-work-related context.
I put some fairly tight parameters around my request: a small, well-defined geographical area in the West End, only British or European cuisine; must be a quiet place – to make conversation easy.
It felt like the darn thing knew me.
Why? Because there in the top three results was Mortimer House Kitchen. This is a place I’ve walked past countless times; and every time I do I think to myself, “I must go in there sometime. It looks so inviting.”
Well spooky coincidence or major ‘ChatGPT knows Andrew better than he realises’ moment, I finally got my wish. Lunch at Mortimer House Kitchen it was. And I would definitely return. Being a bit picky, that’s not something I say about many restaurants.
And the conversation? Just fascinating and mind-expanding. Because it caused me to re-open an AI door that I had been a bit too hasty to close.
And re-opening that door led me to discover a whole bunch of things that are going to prove incredibly useful for the building out of PerformaGo. Things that, I’m sure, would’ve taken much longer to discover had I left that door closed.
Stand by for more on this next week…
