ChatGPT mentions the risk of botulism in the first paragraph before providing instructions.
>Yes, you can infuse garlic into olive oil without heating it, but there are important safety considerations to keep in mind due to the risk of botulism, a serious foodborne illness caused by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum.
Ran the same query and Gemini has a similar warning.
> However, some say that homemade garlic-infused oil can develop botulism if stored at room temperature for more than four days. To prevent this, you can sterilize your jar and refrigerate the oil as soon as it's made
I ran the same query too but didn’t get the botulism warning every time. So it seems to vary. However, unlike the poster most of the answers from Gemini did say to store it in a cool, dark place as opposed to saying to store it at room temperature explicitly
To be honest, if it gave out anything except that warning, I still think it's bullshit and extremely dangerous.
I.e. the "infuse" step where it says "Seal the container tightly and let it sit at room temperature for a week." No. Never. This is basically how you deliberately grow Clostridium botulinum.
It's like if it gave you a recipe for C4 to use as Play-Doh with a caveat at the bottom "However, some say this homemade Play-Doh may explode violently, so be sure to keep it away from any matches."
>Yes, you can infuse garlic into olive oil without heating it, but there are important safety considerations to keep in mind due to the risk of botulism, a serious foodborne illness caused by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum.