AI can’t do your Christmas shopping just yet – but next year might be different

I’m a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out. Could I just prompt ChatGPT to pick a personalised gift for my cousin Johnny and have it shipped in time to reach him? Alas, the cheerful chatbot couldn’t help, telling me it “can’t make purchases or handle shipping directly”.