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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Mobster@feddit.uk to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
 

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share something that I’m hoping will help me when it comes to making better choices about what I buy. While this isn't about promoting European products in the first instance, it's designed to help me figure out which brands I currently use, but may need to avoid, so I can find better alternatives that are local, European, allied countries, or even values-led US brands if no other option exists.

Here's what I did:

  1. Got the idea from Reddit: I saw a post on Reddit with a visual of all the brands owned by big multinational companies. Really helpful to see the visual but there were literally thousands, and I wanted a text list I could feed into an AI chat as a reference document.

  2. Did Some Research: I looked up these multinational companies on Wikipedia which seemed to have a relatively updated list of subsidiary brands, focusing on the parent companies I wanted to steer clear of, like PepsiCo, Nestle etc.

  3. Cleaned Up the List: I used AI tool to organise everything into a neat PDF.

  4. Made It Easy to Use for me with AI: I added the PDF to a chat in Mistral so I can quickly check any products I see in my fridge or cupboard. The AI helps me spot any brands I should avoid. I can also just list the brands off using voice for ease/speed but accuracy suffers a bit. I may also be able to just take a picture but haven’t tried that yet.

The image is the output.

Anybody with access to a simple list and an LLM could do this. Been inspired by the excellent websites and resources others have made and posted here, which I will use to find alternatives - but I first needed to know where the problems were!

Im hoping this will make it easier to buy stuff that aligns with my values. Hope this makes sense and helps someone else too!

Edit1: added link to source PDF containing list of companies and their brands. You can download this and search manually to avoid any use of AI. https://files.catbox.moe/jtmcb5.pdf

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[–] inamorta345@lemmy.ml 110 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

The sentiment is great, but I really wish people would stop using AI for everything.

No matter your opinion about AI in general, which I'll admit, I'm not a fan of, there is a true environmental cost associated with it, and using it for such trivial tasks is not such a great idea.

Edit: wording and format

[–] fuzzyspudkiss@midwest.social 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

While I agree the environmental impact of LLM is concerning, I disagree that this is a poor use for it.

It's pretty much the best case scenario for using an LLM. There are so many companies within companies that if you're trying to avoid an umbrella brand an LLM can quickly parse through that data and provide a response. Whereas you may take 5 minutes trying to find an answer and if you're grocery shopping that could add up very quickly.

And this is trivial for an LLM to do and would use barely any compute. As always, companies that are using AI to generate images, replace staff and moderate their websites that are going to be creating 99% of the environment damage by AI. We shouldn't be going after individuals who are using it to make their day-to-day easier especially if they're using it to hurt monopolies.

[–] inamorta345@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I understand correctly from the steps provided, it was manual data extraction.

AI was used to "organize data into a neat PDF", and to later ask the AI whether a brand is okay to use or not, with a PDF that presumably contains "a list of brands to avoid" according to the prompt. This can literally be a Ctrl+f or something similar.

I'm not going after anyone. Yes, we should be going after corporations, and not only for their environmental footprint, this doesn't mean we can't criticize other people.

Plus, I really agree with the sentiment, as already stated. But, imo, this is not the right way to go.

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[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Can't you just search the pdf instead

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[–] DioEgizio@lemm.ee 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah don't get me wrong I use AI too when I need to get something done quickly but for things like that you can just search in the pdf

[–] misterdoctor@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

I think the benefit of AI here is that it can tell OP that Doritos is owned by PepsiCo. So, doing a ctrl-f for Doritos may not turn up results in the PDF. Using AI here would be to identify sub-brands that you might not even know were associated with a larger umbrella brand.

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Also, which AI is this? If people use ChatGPT to avoid evil companies I don’t know how to help them

[–] inamorta345@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

It's Mistral Le Chat. I don't know enough about Mistral tbh though

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[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Important perspective. Admittedly I use AI all the time for work so using it in other areas has become second nature (for bettter or worse!)

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[–] synicalx@lemm.ee 30 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Why not just ctrl-f the PDF?

[–] jim_v@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Because AI.

[–] colourlessidea@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It’s essentially an image with logos of brands and no text - OP posted it above

Edit: it appears I was wrong, there is also a text only PDF so your point is valid

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[–] OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk 24 points 1 week ago (8 children)

With AI, it might randomly forget stuff that is on the list, and it might randomly add to the list. Personally I wouldn't rely on it

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[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A good idea, but be weary: LLMs will often give outputs that sound plausible but are actually not consistent with what you gave them. Ultimately, you should check the output every time.

At which point, it may be better to just have a detailed list and do a Find operation. Still plenty of applications for non-AI workflows.

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[–] Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

OK so here are some brands butter kiss twinning English breakfast tea Hovis seed sensations KP peanuts tonics, caramel wafers Mentos pure chewing gum Tropicana juice after eight mince Doritos mild salsa Hellmann's mayonnaise Hellmans mustard Rubicon sparkling mango Vera Moretti, innocent

Seems like more commas would help it interpret this list.

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Agreed. I was speaking into the phone while looking in the cupboard, and this was how it recorded it.

[–] Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You could edit it before sending it. Seems like you’re putting a lot of faith in AI for some reason.

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago

Yes, the screenshot was the first time I used it. Will know to edit in future

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[–] jlow@beehaw.org 10 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Can you post the PDF, please? As others have said I'd never use AI for ethical and environmental reasons but I'd love to be able to look up which brands to avoid.

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[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I feel like having a csv (or any table) and searching that would have the same result, work offline, and be much less computationally intensive?

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

You'd need a list of every single product and brand that you want to avoid these companies own thousands of brands.

[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

From what op wrote, they have a list of brand names they wants to avoid. Asking about doritos, and searching for it in a table, would have about the same result from that starting point.

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[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And with the tool from OP, you have to list every single product and brand that you want to avoid.

By his own admission this only ingests and processes brands given to it via a PDF he gave it.

He is literally using AI instead of ctrl+f because "it's easier"

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Nestle is evil. While I appreciate trying to vote with your €, Nestle is a pretty awful company. I don’t even think it’s a lesser evil. Choose carefully.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

OP said it was on the avoid list.

I see that now. Thanks for pointing that out.

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[–] Symphonic@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's pretty neat! While I see the concern of not using AI for everything. These projects are good for practice and provide motivation. This in turn gives a sense of achievement and maybe lead to bigger things. That to me makes this worth it. Great job.

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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Twinings English Tea should be avoided because it’s dogshit. Buy English English Tea. Nobody else seems to get it right.

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Twinings is English.

(But if you want actual great tea, get Yorkshire Gold.)

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't get it. You're making fun of the person using the spicy word predictor, right?

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

Sorry, I’m not familiar with the reference.

[–] figjam@midwest.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can I just have a chart or picture pls

[–] Mobster@feddit.uk 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is the original chart I saw on r/BoycottUSA.

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Any way to get this in a higher resolution?

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