‘Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon
‘Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon
Experts are worried that books produced by ChatGPT for sale on Amazon, which target beginner foragers, could end up killing someone.
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.
This is a disaster waiting to happen, especially when reputable mushroom books look like this
No doubt, this is the best mushroom book imo. It's on my shelf as I type this.
Wait... is that a joke? AI mistake, guy with a trumpet for a hand, or weird photo angle? Now I'm confused 😯
Oh dear.
That is truly a terrible idea, and Amazon should be liable since they do exercise control over what they sell (which I know, because I have two books for sale there).
I've reported multiple listings for pet treats that contain substances known to be harmful to dogs, and they've taken no action.
I've done the same with several listings for grills that have galvanized grates. Nothing ever happened. Amazon really doesn't care.
using amazon for books is like using aol for internet access
not arguing, but what do you use instead (other than your local book store)?
lol my city has several libraries which aren't book stores.
What do you mean? Kindle store is not bad at all
yeah, where else do you expect self published authors to make their mark?
I've extremely enjoyed the self-pub route so many authors can take these days. Some of my favorite series come from people who didn't even want to bother with the traditional publisher and I am so much happier for it.
So I mean, if you have some alternatives for self published authors to reach a broad audience with a minimum of fuss, that's great. I'm just not seeing a valid replacement, myself.
edit: that said, some are dumpster fires in a pit of eternal despair. but I'm a big boy, I can figure that out for myself.
Permanently Deleted
I bought most of my college books used on Amazon way back when. I did that again the last few years, sometimes Amazon had the best price and or lead time. I also used a few other sites.
Yikes, and I thought the AI generated children's books were bad for society.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why?
Robert Evans wrote a post on it and did multiple podcast episodes.
The TL&DR is that AI-generated children's books are crap, without a coherent storyline or any literary niceties like "foreshadowing" and "beginning middle and end". Kids are still learning what stories look like, so if you hand them AI-generated stuff they might know it's unsatisfying, but they can't put into words why their books are wrong.
Sadly, it's another hustle. If you spend enough time on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TIkTok, you may see ads for "business opportunities," which include a bunch of ways to spend lots of wasted time on things that will supposedly give you "passive income". A lot of them consist of stringing together crude tools to supposedly run a business without actually running anything. For instance, you can learn how to set up a business on Amazon where someone else manufactures your products and Amazon stores and ships them, and supposedly you're now a business owner. Obviously, it doesn't work.
One version of this is becoming a "published author" by having stuff written either by ChatGPT or what are essentially slaves in the global south, and then self-publishing it as ebooks on Amazon.
Again, there's no real money or sense of accomplishment, but people are desperate, and so people try it.
This is my experience so don't rely on it: Most mushrooms won't kill you but some will make you so sick that you wished you died. Even a small bite of the deadly Destroying Angle will most likely not kill you. Only eat a very small amount of a new-to-you mushroom because even safe ones may trigger a fatal allergic reaction, also "safe" Morel mushrooms have killed people who really, really over consumed them.
Get a real "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms", book and download the "Seek" app for your phone. Find a person who experienced and go slow. NEVER get careless or over confident.Then there's the permanent kidney failure...
In the United States, where I used to travel often and widely, you have to pay for dialysis and it’s extremely expensive. In New York it cost me $1000 a session.
It's worth pointing out that this is because the author is a foreign national. Americans with permanent kidney failure are guaranteed Medicare even if they're under 65, and Medicare part B covers outpatient dialysis in full. Signing that into law is one of the few good things Richard Nixon ever did.
Most mushrooms won't kill you
That's not very reassuring
I don't think it was meant to be reassuring. @rayyyy@kbin.social is right, don't mess around with fungi. You can get irreversible kidney damage.
Filtering by doing your research before ingesting one that should keep you from dying almost guaranteed.
In the US about 420 people die every year from salmonella poisoning usually incurred from food, often bought at the grocery store.
Meanwhile 3 people die from mushroom poisoning. And with a good book i'd say it is quite straightforward. My mushroom book provides an info for every specimen whether it has a poisonous look-alike and what specifics to look out for. If i am still uncertain, i just dont eat it.
You can eat any mushroom.... At least once.
Also, there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but no old, bold mushroom hunters.
You can eat lava... but only once.
You can easily take a bullet to the brain.... Once
As always, the dose makes the poison.
A common scenario is people picking the wrong species and then not just eating a small bite, but cooking an entire meal and eating that.A small bite may not kill you, but just one mushroom (50g) can be enough to do it.
There are some toxic mfs out there and they can be mistaken for edible lookalikes by inexperienced foragers.
One of the people I dated once confused wild onions with Death Camas in her omelets. She and her father got extremely sick and at least one got admitted to the hospital. Luckily, nobody died. Luckily, death Camas aren't as toxic as some mushrooms. I wouldn't dick with mushrooms even if I had an ID book, though.
The stakes just aren't worth it. I had a book on mushrooms as a kid, and after reading it cover to cover, I decided it just wasn't worth the risk of misidentification. Many look similar, and the edible-looking ones are sometimes quite toxic.
People need to stop using zeroGPT it does not accurately detect ai generated text.
Well, apart from that you can also make other mistakes like eating mushrooms undercooked or eating too old specimens leading to a food poisoning. Also, there are mushrooms that are quite edible for a long time but can cause organ failure and lead to death after many years.
Anyways, it seems like a really bad idea to let an AI decide what of all of this information is important and how to communicate it.
Amazon won’t care because nobody will hold Amazon accountable.