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The New AI Pasta King
Last week, while I was writing my newsletter, I got a call from my buddy and old boss, Nick, from Sam's Italian Deli in Fresno. When I told him I was working on my weekly newsletter he joked (I think?) Isn't that what AI is for. It certainly seems to be what AI wants to do, or at least what the powers that be from these AI companies want. I guess the promise is that instead of spending time writing a weekly newsletter, you just let AI do it and spend your time on the beach or somewhere like that.
The company I use to send you these emails, Klaviyo has morphed over the last few years into some type of AI platform and every week there is a change that seems to confuse my feeble mind. The company I used to use - mailchimp which I liked quite a bit, but it was suggested that as our company grew up we needed to be more professional. I can't tell a big difference, but I guess the name Klaviyo sounds more professional than Mailchimp. I like the thought of AI chimps sending my emails, but I can also see the problems with that and especially AI chimps. Mailchimp has also proudly leaned into AI, proudly claiming that their customers have sent over 9.8 billion emails with AI content (I wonder how much time I've wasted reading those).
So, using Klaviyo's AI tools I asked it to generate an image of the Pasta King writing an AI newsletter and the above is what I got. Then I asked 3 of the top AI companies - Anthropic Claude, Open AI Chat GPT and Space X Grok to write the email I wrote last week. I do admit that all three came up with a fairly well done newsletter that I'm sure would be something most marketers would be proud to send. Here's the big problem, how did AI write these comprehensive newsletters for me. As I looked at the sourcing, most of it came from what I had already written with the rest coming from articles written about Etto pulling quotes from me. There were no new thoughts or ideas, but just regurgitation from past work. It was like a trip down memory lane.
I don't know much about AI, and maybe there is a way for it to come up with some brilliant or novel ideas about Etto, the pasta business or maybe even my life experience. Until I figure out how to do this I will instead keep trying to inform and hopefully entertain you with my thoughts and ideas about Etto, our community and my deep thoughts. If you'd rather hear from the Pasta King above, I do admit that he looks like a greater pasta authority than me and a huge fan of copper cookware (he must be rich- have you seen the price of copper lately), I can pass the torch. From the picture I fear he might extol the virtues of teflon die extruded penne pasta which we would have to settle in an arm wrestling contest that I would surely lose.
Thanks so much for following what we do and supporting us over the years and reading these newsletters.
Our sold out trip to Sicily coming up the first week of November just had two spots open up due to a conflict that arose from one of the couples. Please let me know if you want to come. It will be a blast - just hopefully not when we are hiking on Mt. Etna. Respond to this email. Pasta Club discounts apply.
Well it just got HOT - must mean the fair's in town. Avoid the crowds and come to the oasis that's Tin City. This sausage special pasta features the Sausage from San Luis Sausage and it's comfort at it's finest. I had it on Monday an licked the plate clean.
