The machines are coming... to spec your new BMW

► Have you ever wanted to chat to a robot to spec your new car? ► Good news – BMW has hooked its configurator up to ChatGPT ► Just don’t be afraid to fact-check it, or you might end up with a Lada

AI is the future. It’s already helping us (for better or worse) handle all sorts of boring admin tasks – and, for many people, it’s replaced Google as their main search engine. But BMW reckons it has the power to help us choose our next car. In fact, the brand is so confident in that idea that it’s linked its configurator to ChatGPT.

The concept is simple. You explain your requirements for a car to ChatGPT, specifying your desired number of seats, boot space, ground clearance, body style, performance, running costs and so on. It will then crawl through BMW’s configurator and present you with a list of cars that suit your needs, saving you loads of time and effort in the process.

You don’t need to use jargon to do it, either. BMW’s biggest selling point for the system is that users can spell out their needs in their own natural language – and then get a response from an AI voice with the most suitable motors.

You can then open a tab from the AI into BMW’s configurator, containing a car with the exact specification you described to the bot. Alternatively, it can waft any relevant cars under your nose from BMW’s stockpile. Magic.

At the time of writing, the tool hadn’t hit ChatGPT’s plug-in section for the UK, so I’ve yet to test the dexterity of the technology against my rather heavy regional accent. However, my experience of other chat-based AI tools suggests it could struggle. But that’s more of a me problem than an inherent issue with the technology.

What’s more amusing is the potential for hallucinations. For me, these are some of the best aspects of using AI, as you can end up with absurd answers to what should be simple questions. Unless BMW has aggressively ring-fenced the data its new tool can access, ChatGPT could end up recommending one of the brand’s competitor cars. Or, in my case, maybe a John Deere. Or a Fendt. I’m looking forward to the hilarity once I’ve tried it.

Speaking more selfishly, I really hope the industry doesn’t adopt this approach as the norm. BMW’s car configurator isn’t quite as good as Land Rover or Porsche’s, but I’ve still had hours of fun piecing together some ridiculous, would-be heavily depreciating monstrosities on it.

Call me sad, but it’d be a real shame to have that pastime whipped away.