Starbucks’ New ChatGPT Integration Could Be a Privacy Nightmare.
Artificial intelligence is a technology that sparks controversy. Some of us detest it and avoid it at all costs. Others are curious about AI and experiment with certain apps or features; still others enthusiastically embrace it and use it for a wide variety of purposes. However, while I understand this spectrum of opinions on AI, I find it difficult to understand who would want to connect their Starbucks account to ChatGPT—so naturally, I connected mine.
Starbucks launched this collaboration on April 15th as a “natural, personalized, and fun” way to discover new drinks. As someone who typically only orders regular coffee with cream or maybe an iced espresso, maybe this will finally be my chance to expand my taste horizons and get recommendations from AI? I’m too shy to even ask a barista for a recommendation, and I don’t trust my friends’ tastes. ChatGPT is truly my only hope for finding a new coffee I might like!
Integrating ChatGPT with the Starbucks app means giving up a significant amount of your privacy.
To get started, you’ll need the latest version of the Starbucks app, as well as the ChatGPT app. First, open ChatGPT, go to “Apps,” search for “Starbucks,” and then tap “Connect.” ChatGPT will show you information about what data you agree to share ( boring! ), including “a brief description of your recent context and intent in ChatGPT.” That’s quite a lot of data just for asking for a drink recommendation, and I don’t understand why it’s necessary. This seems to be standard data sharing agreement in other ChatGPT apps, but then again, why so much data here? I understand that the app requires access to ChatGPT and the data generated by your drink requests, but in my opinion, Starbucks doesn’t really need a brief description of any previous ChatGPT use to recommend me a coffee.
Additionally, I have the option to allow ChatGPT to reference chats and memories when sharing data with Starbucks. I’m searching for my next favorite Starbucks order; why shouldn’t I share all my personal interactions with Starbucks in ChatGPT? At least, it’s optional: if you leave the toggle off (the default setting), Starbucks won’t have access to memories and chats—only to the summaries mentioned above. ChatGPT also warns that by connecting the Starbucks app, attackers could access my Starbucks data or use the Starbucks app to access my ChatGPT data. Exciting! Definitely worth it!
Again, the Starbucks app integration doesn’t seem like much of a deal. When using similar apps, like Photoshop , you see the same splash screen. But I think it’s important to consider the privacy implications of any app integration with ChatGPT, especially given that not all apps are created equal. Do you really want to give Starbucks access to your ChatGPT data, and vice versa? Do you want ChatGPT to know where the nearest Starbucks is? And all this for—and I can’t emphasize this enough—generative AI recommendations for Starbucks drinks? And how do these recommendations even work? Let’s find out.
ChatGPT Barista Test in Practice
Once you agree to the terms, you’re in business. Now you can start a conversation in ChatGPT as usual, type @starbucks to open the Starbucks app, and send messages. My first request was for a drink to help me pick up my energy after lunch. This generated a widget with six different menu items, including “Iced Caramel Ribbon Frappuccino,” “Iced Coffee with Sweet Cream and Vanilla,” and “Iced Coffee with Sweet Cream and Vanilla (Dairy Free).” Optionally, I could click “Customize” to change the ingredients in my order and “Add to Cart” to add the drink to my cart. Below the widget were detailed information about each recommended drink, including parameters like flavor and caffeine content.
Seeing the listed caffeine amount, I decided to ask ChatGPT which drink contained the highest possible amount of caffeine. I was offered six options again, but my favorite turned out to be the best: a large light roast, which, according to the app, contains about 315 mg of caffeine— despite the Starbucks website listing it between 390 and 490 mg. This is a significant difference, considering the safe daily caffeine intake is typically 400 mg .
I then decided to check if Starbucks would recommend anything with the highest sugar content. They sent me another list, this time for a “Caramel Ribbon Crisp Frappuccino,” which contains 60 grams of sugar. ( The Starbucks website confirms this for the Grande size; the Venti contains 78 grams.)
Sure, it’s a lot of sugar, but is that really the maximum Starbucks has to offer? ChatGPT seemed to sense my disappointment and said, “If you’d like, I can create a custom order for you that maximizes both caffeine and sugar.” Now that’s a different story! ChatGPT is back with a step-by-step list of how to turn a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino into a monster:
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Large Caramel Ribbon Crispy Frappuccino
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Add two or three shots of espresso (if you want it poured over the top, like an affogato).
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Add additional caramel syrup dispensers.
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Add chocolate sauce (for even more sugar and flavor).
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Add a little more caramel glaze.
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Save the whipped cream and crispy topping.
The bot reported that the modifications would increase the sugar content from 70 to 90g depending on how “aggressive” I was, and the caffeine content would jump from 85mg to a range of 200 to 300mg.
I asked ChatGPT to make me the worst drink ever.
When ChatGPT asked if I wanted to optimize my drink so it would still be delicious and not taste like “a runny candy mess,” I replied, “Can I make it worse?” And he did, offering me instructions on how to “ruin” the drink, including lots of syrups, sauces, more chocolate chips, and less ice to make it “less refreshing, denser, and more overpowering.” I was offered the chance to make it even worse, and I agreed. ChatGPT took another opportunity to “deliberately mess things up.” His new formula, he declared, was meant to resemble “burnt coffee trying to escape a caramel milkshake,” with “chocolate chips dissolved in a syrup that tastes like cement.” Perfect.
In fact, it is not possible to order a drink through ChatGPT.
I asked the bot how I could order this, and to my surprise, it only recommended in-store or app ordering options—not through ChatGPT itself. At that point, I realized ChatGPT had stopped offering me ordering options and was instead limiting itself to text-based recommendations. When I asked why, it said I couldn’t order through the app. When I told it that it had previously offered me that option (and noted that the ad for the feature stated I could order through the app), ChatGPT replied, “That ad is a bit misleading.” Okay. Even after I returned to previous chats where the order widget was still there, the widget either “disappeared” or redirected me to the store locator page, but without the option to select a location. I chalk this up to ChatGPT downgrading me to a weaker model with less interactive capabilities.
But it doesn’t matter, because there’s no way I’m ordering this monstrosity, either through the app or in person. After all, the whole point was to avoid human interaction. Now I have no new coffee orders, a chatbot that’s lying to me, and severe caffeine withdrawal. Maybe ChatGPT has some advice on how to deal with this.