6 events in Passaic County with a date

NJ grocery shoppers can use Instacart

Development uses ChatGPT to function

By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Grocery shoppers can now be done through the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT thanks to a new partnership between Instacart and ChatGPT owner OpenAI.
..... With the new development, shoppers will be able to use the chat feature to brainstorm meal ideas, put together a grocery list and check out, all within ChatGPT.
..... Instacart is used by New Jersey grocers such as Wegmans, Shoprite, Costco, Acme and Stop & Shop.
..... OpenAi made announcement in October [2025] for similar offerings with 10 other partners, including Uber, DoorDash and Target, all of which enable customers to use their services without leaving ChatCPT.
..... For Instacart, ChatCPt's introduction will "make grocery shopping as simple as ahivng a conversation," Instacart chief Technology Officer Anirban Kundu said in an October LinkeIn post.
..... The two have been working together since at least 2023, when ChatGPT was integrated into the Ask Instacart app feature.
..... "Users go form meal planning to checkout in a single, seamless conversation," OpenAI head of ChatGPT Nick Turley said in a statement on Monday, December 8. [2025]
..... "It's another step toward brining our vision to life - where AI delivers helpful suggestions and connect directivity to real-world services, saying people time and effort in their everyday lives," Turley said.
..... However, ChatGPT has been known to be "confidently incorrect" in its answers, according to a March [2025] analysis by the Columbia Journalism Review.
..... One revere said chatGPT had given them "bland dinner recipes," requiring them to manually input preferences for the chatbot before getting desirable recipes.
..... A ChatGPT recipe for blueberry muffins produced one that we a "bit shriveled and small," while Southern cooking recipes were also disappointing, wrote another reviewer.
..... In August, [2025] ChatGPT advised a 60-year-old man to replace table salt with the toxic compound sodium bromide, leading to his hospitalization, NBC reported.
..... Meanwhile, Google's AI overviews advised users to make pizza with "non-toxic glue" or eat one rock per day, according to the BBC.
..... Users could run the risk of seeing "stealth ads" when doing their grocery shopping said Doug Stephens, founder of the shopping consultant website Retail Prophet.
..... "Are the products recommended solely because they;re the best option or are they being driven by brand promotional places?" he said in an email.
..... Independent and local Grocery stress not partnered with ChatGPT may lose out on business Stephens continued.
..... Funny or even harmful errors aside, some users may simply "prefer the classic Instacart app, where they can quickly see past orders and their favorite items," said Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director of GlobalData, a market intelligence and analytics company.
..... ShopRite is adding dozens of AI-powered smart carts called Caper Cart by Instacart, including at ShopRite stores in Flemington, Clinton and Greenwich.
..... The carts automatically scan and recognize items as you put them in the grocery cart through an array of built-in cameras, sensors, scales and machine learning. They also let you track your spending suggest personalized deals and let you check out directly form the cart's touchscreen, in some cases completely skipping the checkout line.
..... The stores will see 40 Caper Carts in the Greenwich location, 30 in Clinton and 30 in Flemington.
..... Stop & Shop uses AI with Marty the Robot a googly-eyed assistant responsible for inventory-tracking on shelves, a task that would typically be done by human workers, to "expedite restocking and price corrections," and also tracking nay hazard on the flour, said spokesperson Caroline Medeiros.

HOME