How My Mom Uses AI to Check Dangerous Body Care Products
Use AI to Check the Safety of Cosmetics and Body Care Products.
We live on a farm and for years our family has been trying to capitalize on the health benefits of living away from the big city and its ease of access to organic and chemical-free products. Though I can’t say that we have a perfectly healthy lifestyle, we always try to stay away from ultra-processed foods and harmful chemicals when it’s possible.
My search started early Saturday evening when my mother called to ask my opinion if she should use the hair dye that a friend had given earlier that day.
The box of the product is green with organic written all over telling my subconscious that it is ok and safe, but I have been exposed to a few tricks in marketing enough to pull myself from being swayed easily.
My mother’s question got me curious, and I started to do my research to figure it out.
While I Googled and YouTubed my way to find the answer I was led to articles and videos about the subject and as I got more information about it the list of harmful chemicals and their names got confusing and hard to remember not to mention harder to check against the label.
I told myself there’s got to be an easier way. I first turned my attention to sites offering this service and then to apps and found EWG’s Healthy Living and Think Dirty — Shop Clean to name a few. I realized after using the apps some of the features are behind the paywall. I don’t want to pay for an app that I will probably use just a few times a month and told myself I should find another option.
This led me to realize that I could use the new feature of Chat GPT which is custom GPT to solve this challenge. I already have an existing Chat GPT paid subscription at this point since I have been using it for my website and blog The Gifting Genius.
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ — Plato.
To give a brief background, Chat GPT recently gave its paid users the option to create their custom GPTs, so they do not have to key in the prompt and train it every time they want to do a specific task.
There are lots of ready-made custom GPTs in its store from logo creators, SEO writers, research assistants, etc., but since my specific use is a bit niche, I am unable to find one that gives the kind of answer I am looking for, so I decided to make my own.
There are different ways to make a custom GPT. You have the simple option of telling Chat GPT about the custom GPT you want to create, and it will make it automatically for you including the logo…
…Or the slightly complex one wherein you have more customization, upload files option, use code, and more for your GPT to follow and have as a reference.
I used the latter to create my custom GPT named Label Safety Checker. To make my data more relevant and accurate, I made files containing information I gathered from the websites of the FDA, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC), and Environmental Working Group (EWG) and included it in my custom GPT.
After a few fine-tunings, I was able to polish my custom GPT to create the consistent and accurate output I wanted. Label Safety Checker works by simply taking a picture using the Chat GPT app or uploading a picture of the label you want to check, and it will show in table format the different chemicals that may be harmful and the possible harm they can do to our body.
I tried to make it as simple as possible since I wanted my not-so-tech-savvy mother and other family members to use it and ensure they were informed about the body care products and cosmetics they were using.
Going back to my mother’s question, I went back to her and told her that although the packing of her hair dye looks safe and was recommended by her friend analysis using the Label Safety Checker shows it contains chemicals that are cause for concern, and it’s best to skip it and find something else that is safer.
After that, she asked me about the checker, and I showed her how to use it. After a while, I saw her going around the house taking pictures of labels and marking the items that didn’t look good to her. Overall, she was amused and better informed and we’re all safer thanks to AI.
you can check the custom GPT Label Safety Checker from the GPT store via https://chat.openai.com/g/g-lvWzh0cGh-label-safety-checker — It’s FREE!!!
