Creating Healthy Diets for Weight Loss: Insights from Google, ChatGPT, and Pi AI

**Pi: A Conversational Chatbot for Personalized Meal Planning**

**Introducing Pi: Your Personal AI Companion**

Inflection AI, the startup co-founded by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of OpenAI and Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, has developed Pi, a conversational chatbot built to provide personalized and emotionally intelligent meal plans. Pi aims to be a trusted companion, offering advice and engaging in friendly conversations about various topics. Let’s explore how Pi compares to other AI tools in generating healthy meal plans for weight loss.

**Pi vs. Other AI Tools: A Different Approach**

Pi takes a unique approach compared to other AI tools such as Google Bard and ChatGPT. With Pi, users can engage in conversations without signing in, providing a sense of anonymity. Pi strives to be empathetic, ethical, and a companion. Rather than asking straightforward questions like “How can I help you?”, Pi engages users in banter resembling a dating bot, showing curiosity about their hobbies and interests.

**Testing Pi’s Meal Planning Abilities**

To assess Pi’s meal planning capabilities, I asked it to prepare a 1200-calorie meal plan that supports weight loss and optimizes for fiber, protein, and calcium, while minimizing carbs, fat, sugar, and sodium. Pi’s initial response pushed back, stating that the calorie level was too low and offering options that exceeded the daily recommended allowance for dietary cholesterol.

**A Sample 1200-Calorie Meal Plan with Nutritional Facts**

After some typos, glitches, and a touch of ego, Pi eventually provided a useful meal plan. Here is our conversation:

**Prompt: Please provide a one day 1200-calorie meal plan of superfoods that supports weight loss and optimizes for fiber, protein, and calcium, while minimizing carbs, fat, sugar, and sodium – include nutritional facts per meal.**

**Pi: Sure! Here’s a sample 1200-calorie meal plan for you, with nutritional facts:**

– **Breakfast:** Omelet with spinach and peppers (3 eggs, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/4 cup bell pepper): 350 calories, 10 grams saturated fat, 25 grams total fat, 5 grams fiber, 31 grams protein, 8 grams carbohydrates, 280 milligrams sodium, 4 grams sugar, 190 milligrams calcium.

**Prompt: How about lunch, dinner, and mid-morning and afternoon snacks?**

**Pi: For lunch, I’d recommend a salad with arugula, cucumber, chickpeas, and olive oil-based dressing:** 400 calories, 2 grams saturated fat, 16 grams total fat, 8 grams fiber, 15 grams protein, 48 grams carbohydrates, 125 milligrams sodium, 4 grams sugar, 80 milligrams calcium.

**Prompt: What about dinner and mid-morning and afternoon snacks?**

**Pi: For dinner, salmon with quinoa and broccoli would be a great option.** That brings the total to 1130 calories for the day. **For mid-morning and afternoon snacks, I’d suggest either apple slices with 1 tablespoon of almond butter:** 180 calories, 1 gram saturated fat, 10 grams total fat, 3 grams fiber, 4 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrates, 80 milligrams sodium, 14 grams sugar, 25 milligrams calcium.

**Prompt: And for the afternoon snack?**

**Pi: For the afternoon snack, you can choose either a handful of raw almonds:** 170 calories, 1.5 grams saturated fat, 14 grams total fat, 3 grams fiber, 6 grams protein, 5 grams carbohydrates, 0 milligrams sodium, 1 gram sugar, 35 milligrams calcium. **Or a cup of plain Greek yogurt with a handful of blueberries:** 130 calories, 1 gram saturated fat, 5 grams total fat, 4 grams fiber, 12 grams protein, 14 grams carbohydrates, 80 milligrams sodium, 14 grams sugar, 130 milligrams calcium. Which option do you prefer?

**Prompt: What is the total calorie count?**

**Pi: The total calories for the day would be either 1320 or 1360, depending on which afternoon snack you choose.** The almonds option has more calories but is higher in fat and fiber. The yogurt option is lower in calories but has more sugar.

**Google Bard and ChatGPT’s Meal Plans**

In contrast to Pi, Google Bard and ChatGPT produced meal plans that adhered to the 1200-calorie limit. However, Google Bard had a math error, omitting the inclusion of calcium details, while ChatGPT lacked organization in its response. Here are their meal plans:

**Google Bard:**
– **Breakfast:** Avocado Toast (271 calories, 12g fat, 25g carbs, 8g protein, 10g fiber, 10mg sodium)
– **Lunch:** Salmon Salad (332 calories, 18g fat, 13g carbs, 24g protein, 3g fiber, 345mg sodium)
– **Dinner:** Black Bean Quinoa Bowl (480 calories, 13g fat, 45g carbs, 26g protein, 15g fiber, 350mg sodium)
– **Snacks:** Apple with Almond Butter (180 calories, 14g fat, 25g carbs, 6g protein, 5g fiber, 10mg sodium)

**ChatGPT:**
– **Breakfast:** Spinach and Mushroom Omelet
– **Mid-Morning Snack:** Greek Yogurt with Berries
– **Lunch:** Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas
– **Afternoon Snack:** Almonds and Carrot Sticks
– **Dinner:** Baked Salmon with Broccoli

**Conclusion**

Pi, the conversational chatbot developed by Inflection AI, offers a unique and engaging approach to meal planning. While Pi had some hiccups in generating an accurate and organized meal plan, it provided useful tips and options. Further improvements and refinements could enhance Pi’s ability to produce personalized meal plans efficiently.