Her computerised voice might sound vaguely reminiscent of an AI-enabled assistant you know and trust but utterances such as "I look forward to your frail body withering as the seasons change" remind you that Carrot enjoys delivering anti-human insults with each weather forecast.
Carrot is a smartphone assistant with a difference and comes with five different productivity apps, the latest of which is Carrot Weather. This app is powered by Dark Sky, a weather prediction app known for its hyperlocal, down-to-the-minute forecasts so it is genuinely useful and has rain prediction for Ireland, the UK and the United States.
The difference is that this weather app has several personalities to choose from: it is automatically set to “homicidal” but you can also pick “friendly”, “snarky” and “overkill”, which includes profanities. You can even choose its political leaning (libertarian weather reports, anyone?).
If you’re willing to fork out €3.99 for an annual premium, subscription ads are removed and you get extras for the Android version including a widget and Time Machine, which gives weather reports for any location up to 70 years in the past. Subscription for iOS includes app customisation and access to severe weather alerts and daily summary notifications.
