Tomorrow’s my birthday(!), and every year around this time, I like to reflect on the past year: the highlights, what I’d like to work on, and the challenges.

And this year I've been thinking a lot about how I can continue my career—one that I love SO SO much, thanks to all of you—in a world where AI is becoming increasingly prevalent.

Across Google, social media, and Pinterest, there are hundreds of thousands of recipes stolen, reworded, and regurgitated by AI chatbots.

Chatbots who can’t taste a recipe and determine if it needs more salt or more vinegar, who won’t tweak a recipe after realizing it doesn’t have enough oomph, and who definitely don’t tear up after squeezing lemon juice into their eyes.

The more mainstream AI content becomes, the more it pushes real content creators like me further down in search results and social media algorithms. And all of this affects our ability to earn a livelihood.

What you can do:

The good news is we don't have to take this AI slop lying down. Below are a few simple things you can do to help (consider this my birthday present 😉):

1. Add “RPL” to your Google Searches: Instead of searching “vegan banana bread”, search “RPL banana bread.” That lets Google know you want my recipe—not some third-rate AI copycat version.
2. Engage with creators you love: Teach the algorithm that you care about content made by real people by liking, commenting, sharing, and saving content from your favorite creators on Google, Instagram, etc. 99% of people just scroll by; your engagement can make a difference!
3. Share this newsletter: This newsletter is all real, all me, and something AI can’t touch. It’s where I can share recipes (and bits of my life!) directly with you. Forward it to someone you think would enjoy my recipes, recs, and occasional dad jokes 🤭

On my end, I am going to keep meticulously developing, testing, tasting, and writing about vegan food because these are the things I love (and they make me feel connected to real humans like you). I am so lucky to have this community—it’s enough to make me tear up 🥹

Or maybe that’s just the lemon juice in my eye.

xo,
​Nisha @rainbowplantlife​

PS: My cookbook, Big Vegan Flavor, is available for 58% off — for today only!

Max (my partner) says that if we get 100 replies to this email, he'll make the Celebration Cake from the book (p. 585) for my birthday.

He's never baked anything in his life but if you want to see him give this a try, reply and let me know how you feel about AI. I'll share the final result of his efforts in a future email. 😅

Let's be friends!

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