Mooloolaba Fisheries uses AI to create new seafood product

The secret herbs and spices featured in a Mooloolaba seafood shop’s newest product aren’t a family recipe or a chef’s secret, in fact, it was not created by a human at all.

A major Sunshine Coast fishery has unveiled a new food product with a twist - it was created all thanks to artificial intelligence.

The Marinaba, a Mooloolaba king prawn in a barbecue marinade, hit the shelves at Mooloolaba Fisheries on July 18.

The recipe was created entirely using ChatGPT - a computer chatbot program which uses artificial intelligence.

Mooloolaba Fisheries general manager Paul Schenk, a former high profile international chef and hotel manager, said the idea to use ChatGPT was “just a bit of fun” and he was not expecting the chatbot to come back with anything substantial.

Paul Schenk, general manager of Mooloolaba Fisheries. Photo: Jorina Maureschat

“I tried a few things and the main one was ‘can you please give me a recipe that uses Mooloolaba prawns and a marinade to put on the barbecue’,” he said.

The chatbot replied with a recipe for the marinade, serving suggestions and even came up with a name for it: the Marinaba.

“It was a paragraph long but it said it’s a mixture of marinade and Mooloolaba, and the idea is it’s about the essence of the ocean and blending flavours with the marinade,” he said.

Mr Schenk’s team tried the dish and enjoyed it so much, they decided it would be sold at Mooloolaba Fisheries’ different markets across the Coast.

Marinaba prawns at Mooloolaba Fisheries. Photo: Jorina Maureschat

But despite the success, Mr Schenk said he wasn’t anticipating using artificial intelligence to craft any other recipes any time soon.

“In terms of authenticity of recipes, I would probably prefer to trust people I know, other chefs, that I can lean on,” he said.

There was no risk of artificial intelligence or technology overtaking human labour at Mooloolaba Fisheries either.

“The reality is the prawn fisherman need to catch the prawns and that’s not going to be taken by AI anytime soon,” he said.

“It’s not replacing anybody in our operation any time soon.”