cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7458945
Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI’s inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned about the risks of AI-generated foraging guides. Experts note that safely identifying wild mushrooms requires careful research and experience that an AI system does not have. Amazon has since removed some books flagged as AI-generated, but more may exist. Detecting AI-generated books and authors can be difficult as the systems can fabricate author bios and images. Relying on multiple credible sources, as well as guidance from local foraging groups, is advised for safely pursuing mushroom foraging.
That’s wild that this article popped up on my feed this instant, I saw an ad for AI plant identification through your camera lens. The first thought I had was “holy shit so many people are going to die when Alexa misidentifies water hemlock as cow parsnip”.
Tbf the same thing exists for mushrooms, there are various apps. It’s dangerous to rely on them but I use them for a first idea of what I might be looking at and then go from there. Quite useful sometimes
Yeah I have nothing against the idea itself, I just know there are people out there who will trust an app 100% and never try to go from there. It’s super sad really, if some people had just a little more discernment I wouldn’t instantly have thought about people dying from it.