An AI for the Shopping Guy - or Gal

Whew!

I do most of the grocery shopping for us. Actually, being the only on e with a driver's license, I do all the driving for us. Which is why this idea came to me as I pulled up to Trump's Pump and saw that I could steal a gallon of regular for about 4.50 or jump to premium at a shade over 6.00. Yeah, I could drive a couple of hours over to Indiana or Michigan and save a few dollars - but that seems a bit counterproductive right?

So I got this idea for an AI-type app. You could probably do it without AI, but with everyone jumping on the AI bandwagon I figure why not? Let's get back to groceries. 

I use about four different grocery stores for different reasons. Brookhaven is closest, but a bit limited in selections. Pete's is a little further up the road, but has a more selections and an excellent salad bar for nights when we don't want to cook. Kramers is farther away but has bran muffins that Christine likes and - I kid you not - jumbo eggs for 1.99 a dozen. And then of course, there is Costco for mass quantities of paper products and the best ice cream (tied with Trader Joe's which also has the best cheese selection - so five I guess.

So, time was when I would decide on my shopping route based solely on which store or stores best met the items on my shopping list. But no more. Now I consider how much gas I am going to burn as I drive about. 

So here is the idea:

I tell my AI: "I am currently driving using gas for which I paid _____ per galloon. My car gets an average of 23.6 mpg. I am driving from [location A] to [Location B] which is a distance of x miles. How much will it cost me to drive that route?"

Of course, I assume the AI would be smart enough to interface with my gps to select the best route given traffic conditions, perhaps even depreciation on the vehicle. So I would know exactly how much the Trump Pump is costing me per trip. 

I noticed today that my gps defaulted to what it called "my preferred route" which was actually "the back way to home" that I do prefer. I'm assuming my "AI for the Shopping Guy" would store my usual shopping routes and would automatically compute optimal "savings routes" between and among the various stores. It could also inform me if I was passing by a gas station that offered the grade of gas I prefer at a price better than the one I was currently using.

So, yeah, I can see some pragmatic uses for AI. But hands off my drawing and my writing. That is just weird, and evil, and would make my students more prone to cheat and less creative than they were back before AI - heck, even before spell-check.