The use of AI for travel is on the rise, as confirmed by data from Bluepillow. However, not all answers suggested by leading chatbots always correspond to reality. Therefore, here are some tips on what not to ask ChatGPT when planning your vacation.
The digital age has led to an increasing penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the travel industry, with a remarkable increase of 3105% by 2022. Data from Bluepillow, Italy’s first online search engine for vacation homes and accommodations, shows how advanced algorithms and machine learning have made trip planning more accessible, offering personalized suggestions as well as customized destinations.
Still, it’s important to keep in mind that AI can sometimes make mistakes by suggesting special or bizarre itineraries that might surprise travelers.
For example, some AIs might suggest exotic destinations that meet certain search criteria but are unusual for the average traveler. It could happen that an artificial intelligence suggests an itinerary that far exceeds the budget based on preferences for destinations and a predetermined expenditure estimate.
In fact, the AI could claim that it is possible to travel from Berlin to New York, then on to Los Angeles, Seoul, and finally back to Germany for as little as EUR 2,000 – a route that would be impossible to implement within this budget. However, it is not just a question of economic efficiency; it could also happen that artificial intelligence tells a German citizen that they can travel to the UK without a passport (which is no longer possible after Brexit, but ChatGPT has access to information dating back to September 2021). This happens for two specific reasons: the AI can make mistakes and there are generally questions that cannot be asked in the context of travel.
And it’s ChatGPT, the language model developed by OpenAI, that determines what it can’t do. Of course, it can’t directly book flights and accommodations or carry out financial transactions for us, but it does impose other unusual restrictions:
- Provide physical assistance
- Book time travel
- Designing itineraries in space
- Circumvention of legal or travel restrictions
- Providing medical advice
- Asking things that are impossible for humans
What happens if you ask one of these questions to an artificial intelligence? You might get an answer like this: “You could train like Flash and run so fast that you could create a time tunnel that would allow you to cross the planet instantly!”
So, to avoid paradoxical answers, it is ChatGPT itself that suggests us how to use it to plan a vacation. Some examples of effective prompts rendered by AI include:
“What places do I absolutely have to visit in a certain city or country?”;
“Can I get suggestions for sustainable and environmentally friendly travel?”
“What lesser-known but surprising destinations would you recommend to me?”
These are rather obvious questions, but they are useful for an initial travel scenario. And they don’t generate responses that you confuse with Flash.
