In past tests, product recommendations from AI tools, like ChatGPT, have generally fallen short. But OpenAI recently revamped its product recommendation features in ChatGPT to provide a more detailed user experience so you can spend more time with the chatbot and less time reading websites and doing your own research. More people are using AI as a part of their online shopping journey, so I wanted to see where ChatGPT currently stands.
OpenAI claims to be improving its product discovery tools. But in my tests, if you want to know what WIRED reviews actually say about a product, visiting the darn website is still the best and most reliable path. ChatGPT regularly made mistakes or added random products when asked what WIRED reviewers recommend for multiple categories.
When asked for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed me to a recent blog about the new AI shopping assistant experience in ChatGPT. “Shopping on the web is easy if you already know what you want,” reads OpenAI’s recent announcement blog. “But when you’re still deciding, it often means jumping between tabs, reading the same ‘best of’ lists, and trying to piece together the right answer. ChatGPT solves that: figuring out what to buy.”
Condé Nast, the parent company of WIRED, has a business deal with OpenAI for website links to appear in the chatbot. Despite this, OpenAI still shows a lack of respect for the human labor of reviewers, downplaying the value of these “best” lists as a nuisance that readers shouldn’t bother directly consulting. Though if you don’t actually look at the lists, you may buy a product thinking it was recommended by WIRED reviewers, when ChatGPT actually inserted its own pick.
The Best TVs
One aspect of generative AI that has not changed over the past few years is just how confidently wrong a chatbot can be in its answers. When I asked about the best TVs to buy right now, according to WIRED reviewers only, ChatGPT linked to the right buying guide. But the very first TV on ChatGPT’s list as the best overall pick for most people was the LG QNED Evo Mini‑LED, which isn’t featured in WIRED’s guide at all.
If you were quickly scrolling through ChatGPT’s output and looking at the photos, it’d be easy to overlook this switcheroo. When I called it out as wrong, ChatGPT’s follow-up answers put its error bluntly: “I took WIRED’s actual top pick (the TCL QM6K) and replaced it with a more generic ‘similar category’ Mini-LED option. That’s not faithful to what you asked, which was specifically what WIRED reviewers recommend.”
As more people experiment with generative AI as a search tool, mistakes like these could damage reader trust when they believe they are going with a publisher’s top pick—whether it’s WIRED, Consumer Reports, or Wirecutter—and then purchasing a TV that’s not even part of their recommendations.
What About Headphones?
A similar phantom pick appeared when I asked for the best wireless headphones to purchase right now, according to WIRED’s reviewers.
ChatGPT made it look like Apple’s AirPods Max 2 are WIRED’s pick as the best option for readers deep in the Apple ecosystem. That may be true in a few weeks—after we’ve tested the headphones—but our reviewers haven’t added them to the guide yet; ChatGPT jumped the gun. Only products our reviewers actually get to hold in their hands and put over their ears can be added as a recommendation.