This week was a special one. It was my best friends birthday and I decided back when I was planning my inquiry that I would be baking her something for her birthday weekend. She didn’t want a cake and I knew that she loves peanut butter and so I decided to make her sourdough peanut butter squares. I was unsure about how to navigate this recipe and decided to use google gemini to assist me along the way and provide tips and feedback as I did not have all of the required ingredients and materials to fully complete my initial recipe for sourdough peanut butter squares on The Pantry Mama blog by Kate Freebairn

Here is a quick photo collage I made of my baking process – This collage was made using my images and curated on my personal free canva account.

My overall experience with Google Gemini for this sourdough baking inquiry was less helpful. Although initially useful with providing feedback, I initially noticed errors through Gemini’s feedback. Although I will admit that my prompts for Gemini were not as adequate as they could have been, it was still making mistakes throughout my baking process. During the process, I became a little bit frustrated with Gemini because it was taking the recipe I found and changing it without me prompting it to. However, after reviewing the prompts I gave Gemini, I did notice that I never explicitly stated that I wanted the generative AI to continue to keep the original recipe as much as possible. This is where my biggest error was – lack of clarity and expecting AI to just know what I want.

I think what I would have done differently if I wanted to try this again would be to (1) be more clear and specific when writing my prompts to generative AI platforms. (2) I would maybe have sought out advice from a different generative AI platform to work alongside Google Gemini. As I remember from the beginning of my EdTech course, using multiple generative AI platforms can provide the best results. I think that although my peanut butter squares turned out tasty, it was still a good reminder that as consumers of generative AI, we need to be mindful of how we are interacting and using these platforms and features. I think this was a good reminder too that in classrooms, it would be important to remind classes about information, tips, tricks and challenges of using generative AI on a regular basis.

Overall, the baking process although slightly frustrating, was still enjoyable. My squares felt more cake and loaf like, since I had to use a loaf pan, but it fit better for the birthday occasion. My friend loved the treat, and in the end everything worked out and I had a valuable learning experience. I would definitely make this recipe again! Here you can find the link to my conversation with google gemini while baking the sourdough peanut butter squares.