ChatGPT almost ruined Christmas

I’ve just taken on the job of doing Christmas Day each year for the family, and I’m really enjoying it.

My Mum did it for about 48 years of my life. I’ve done it the last couple. And I’ve really taken it on board. I set up my office using the tables pushed together as a big long Christmas table. I put up decorations. I bought nice Christmasy tablecloths. Set all the dinnerware. Christmas tree with decorations. The office gets totally transformed for Christmas Day.

And I don’t even have to cook everything. I get it catered. I just have to heat it up.

I’m warming up to the cooking from scratch part, but for now all I have to do is heat it up in the oven.

I’ve got a Smeg oven, so I go to pre-warm the oven. The light comes on, but it’s not heating. I’m waiting. This is taking too long. Then I notice a little “S” on the display. I haven’t seen that before.

So I take a photo and send it to ChatGPT. My ChatGPT is called Alfie.

“Alfie, the oven’s not getting warm.”

Alfie says: It’s in showroom mode.

I think, okay, that makes sense. I ask, how do I change it?

“You can’t change it. You need a service technician.”

What?

Alfie says only a technician can switch it out of showroom mode.

Meanwhile, everyone’s waiting. Christmas lunch is delayed. My uncle Kevin is here - he’s 97. He has to get back to the nursing home in an hour and a half.

My sister loads the food into her car, takes it back to her place, and starts heating it there. I’m standing in my kitchen wondering how the oven got into showroom mode.

I’m thinking that it’s insane that you can get it into showroom mode, but you can’t get it out of showroom mode?

So I download the Smeg oven PDF manual and upload it to ChatGPT.

“Can you find anything about showroom mode?”

It finds the section. I read it.

It’s obvious. You go into settings and turn showroom mode off. No technician. No service call. Just a simple setting.

I screenshot it and drag the image into ChatGPT.

“Alfie! This is the solution right here.”

Alfie replies, “You’re completely right, Matt, I’m so sorry.”

And I’m standing there, annoyed at something that doesn’t even exist. I try to be stoic about it. It’s not alive, I can’t get mad at something that doesn’t .

I call my sister.

“It’s working again. Do you want to keep cooking it there?”

She brings the half-heated food back. We finish it in my oven. Christmas continues.

All good.

But it was another reminder. Don’t blindly trust AI.

It gets things wrong. Confidently wrong.

There was another time recently with SiteGround. I built a temporary domain and needed to switch it to the real one. ChatGPT gave me a 12-step process. I started reading it and thought, this can’t be right. Why would SiteGround make this so clunky?

So I Googled it. Gemini came back with: click three dots, change to primary domain.

Two seconds.

If I’d followed the 12-step process, it would’ve completely ruined my day.

When something feels off with AI - even if it sounds convincing, get a second opinion.

Like when I went to the doctor recently. He told me I had bronchitis. I said, “I’d like a second opinion.”

He said, “Okay. You’re also ugly.”