There are mushrooms for improvement.
AI is certainly useful for many things. For example, whenever you want to see what a life-sized pickup truck made of orange peel would look like, you can visualize it in seconds. However, I refrain from using it for important things related to health or money. That’s because we all know it’s impossible to get sheet metal-sized orange peels to realistically build a full-size pickup truck. A truly intelligent AI would understand that it has to be a patchwork of tiny orange peels for it to make sense. Nevertheless, some people are brave enough to let an LLM like ChatGPT or Gemini take over the decision-making for them.
On November 3rd, such an incident occurred in Shimokitayama Village, Nara Prefecture. When a man in his 70s went out to pick wild mushrooms, he found mushrooms that resembled shiitake or oyster mushrooms.
▼ Shiitake mushroom
The next day, I tried to take him to a local botanical garden to see what kind it was and whether it was edible, but the staff was not there. Unable to wait, he took a photo with his smartphone instead. The AI agreed with his theory, saying, “It’s a shiitake or oyster mushroom, and it’s edible.”
Satisfied with the AI’s ID, the man grilled the mushrooms and ate them. About 30 minutes later, he started vomiting and was admitted to the hospital. Fortunately, the symptoms were temporary and I was able to make a full recovery. As a result of subsequent analysis by the Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Natural History and the Wakayama City Health Department, The mushroom was Tsukiyotakea poisonous species that is often confused with the edible one.
One way to identify Tsukiyotake is by the raised band around the stem just below the gills. They are also known to have very black spots on the inside, but this is not always the case and they remain poisonous even when cooked. However, despite this information, public health agencies strongly recommend against self-identifying mushrooms, even when using encyclopedias or AI.
▼ Moonlit mushrooms…maybe…follow the label in the photo.
Always have your mushrooms tested by a trained professional, if for no other reason than to hold someone responsible in case of poisoning. Perhaps the man in the hospital could blame the AI for his misdiagnosis, but some of the online comments about this story, taken together, place at least some of the blame on himself.
“The AI couldn’t even tell if it was a shiitake or an oyster mushroom. Why would you trust its judgment?”
“I wonder if he went back to the AI and complained.”
“AI is only as good as its users.”
“There have been cases of edible mushrooms becoming poisonous. Poisonous mushrooms may make someone else sick before you, so you should always buy mushrooms that are mass-produced.”
“What’s the fun in eating wild mushrooms anyway? Just buy them.”
“Shiitake and oyster mushrooms don’t even look alike.”
“The golden rule is, if you don’t know, don’t eat it.”
It may be fun to go out into the great outdoors and gather your own food, but those who actually do it need to know their stuff at an expert level before taking on the challenge. Otherwise, please leave that food for the bears and help maintain their food supply so they don’t come and bother us.
Source: MBS News, Hachima Construction
Top image: © SoraNews24
Image insertion: Pakutaso (1, 2)
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