this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
622 points (98.6% liked)
Fuck AI
4495 readers
1079 users here now
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
People are saying you shouldn't use AI to identify edible mushrooms, which is absolutely correct, but remember that people forage fruits and greens too. Plants are deadly poisonous at a higher rate than mushrooms, so plant ID AI has the potential to be more deadly too.
And then there's the issue that these ID models are very America and/or Europe centric, and will fail miserably most of the time outside of those contexts. And if they do successfully ID a plant, they won't provide information about it being a noxious invasive in the habitat of the user.
Like essentially all AI, even when it works it's barely useful at the most surface level only. When it doesn't work, which is often, it's actively detrimental.
I actually think AI for mushroom identification is okay, but as a step in the process. Sometimes you see a mushroom and your like "what is that?". Do a little scan to see what it is. Okay now you have an idea of what it is, but then comes the next part! https://mushroomexpert.com/ there you can go through the list and see if you get a positive ID.
Like if you're not 100% positive you know what you're foraging why would you take the risk.