By Brian X. Chen

Hello! We’re back with another bonus edition of On Tech: A.I., a pop-up newsletter that teaches you about artificial intelligence, how it works and how to use it.

Last week, I walked you through how to turn artificial intelligence into a tutor and research assistant. In the final installment of our how-to editions, we’ll take what we’ve learned and use it to make the most of family time.

We’ll focus on a few tasks that can take up a lot of mental bandwidth at home. Weekly meal planning is a major chore, and gift giving can be daunting, with various birthdays and holidays throughout the year. And any adult who has read books for children knows that it can become repetitive, and the books aren’t always relatable to a child’s situation or growing pains.

Here’s how A.I. can help.

Meal plans

Foodies and private chefs have been enthusiastically using A.I. to sketch out comprehensive meal plans that consider people’s preferences and dietary restrictions. (Cooks are less gung ho about A.I.-generated recipes, which can be a disaster if a bot screws up.)

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.