Get your knowledge now folks before it's all AI influenced.

Get your knowledge now folks. What's coming down the pipeline may be all a bunch of bad info. A warning just came out about avoiding foraging books on mushrooms.

Some of the books refer to smell and taste as ways to identify mushrooms, which experts say ‘should absolutely not be the case’.

Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI. Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice.

Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Fri 1 Sep 2023 12.32 EDT

Amateur mushroom pickers have been urged to avoid foraging books sold on Amazon that appear to have been written by artificial intelligence chatbots.

Amazon has become a marketplace for AI-produced tomes that are being passed off as having been written by humans, with travel books among the popular categories for fake work.

Now a number of books have appeared on the online retailer’s site offering guides to wild mushroom foraging that also seem to be written by chatbots. The titles include “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: form [sic] forest to gourmet plate, a complete guide to wild mushroom cookery” and “The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West”.

Four samples from the books were examined for the Guardian by Originality.ai, a US firm that detects AI content. The company said every sample had a rating of 100% on its AI detection score, meaning that its systems are highly confident that the books were written by a chatbot such as ChatGPT.

www.theguardian.com...

Pretty worrisome that it seems there's no checks and balances to the information put out there and no one to hold accountable for bad information. I wonder how a book regarding water hemlock might come across? At least someone caught this so there was time to get some warnings out. Someone could die from the bad info.

Today mushrooms, tomorrow, how to win friends and influence people. We might end up with serial killer buddies. Yikes.

This seems like a too perfect set-up. The more false information gets put out there, the more people will be begging and protesting for government control to protect us from stupidity.

I think it will work.

This seems like a too perfect set-up. The more false information gets put out there, the more people will be begging and protesting for government control to protect us from stupidity.

I think it will work.

a reply to: StoutBroux

I don't get it. Is the book saying what the mushrooms are supposed to taste and smell like as final verification or is the book saying to taste the mushroom to see what it tastes like? The first makes sense as it verifies other identification means but just tasting any old mushroom to identify them is at the very least silly and can be deadly depending on your luck.

Knowing what to avoid by smell and taste is important in case you get one wrong and can spit it out before swallowing.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge2
a reply to: StoutBroux

I don't get it. Is the book saying what the mushrooms are supposed to taste and smell like as final verification or is the book saying to taste the mushroom to see what it tastes like?

The book is saying it has no idea what it's talking about.

It's basically the "I read X somewhere on the Internet", versus "I can assure you Y, and have 30 years doing this to back me up".

Now the last thing I'm trusting is a sketchy wild mushroom cookbook with a typo in the title! Only a matter of time before an AI gets someone killed and the government leaps in to "help", and this just might be where it happens.

originally posted by: StoutBroux
Get your knowledge now folks. What's coming down the pipeline may be all a bunch of bad info. A warning just came out about avoiding foraging books on mushrooms.

Some of the books refer to smell and taste as ways to identify mushrooms, which experts say ‘should absolutely not be the case’.

Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI. Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice.

Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Fri 1 Sep 2023 12.32 EDT

Amateur mushroom pickers have been urged to avoid foraging books sold on Amazon that appear to have been written by artificial intelligence chatbots.

Amazon has become a marketplace for AI-produced tomes that are being passed off as having been written by humans, with travel books among the popular categories for fake work.

Now a number of books have appeared on the online retailer’s site offering guides to wild mushroom foraging that also seem to be written by chatbots. The titles include “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: form [sic] forest to gourmet plate, a complete guide to wild mushroom cookery” and “The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West”.

Four samples from the books were examined for the Guardian by Originality.ai, a US firm that detects AI content. The company said every sample had a rating of 100% on its AI detection score, meaning that its systems are highly confident that the books were written by a chatbot such as ChatGPT.

www.theguardian.com...

Pretty worrisome that it seems there's no checks and balances to the information put out there and no one to hold accountable for bad information. I wonder how a book regarding water hemlock might come across? At least someone caught this so there was time to get some warnings out. Someone could die from the bad info.

Today mushrooms, tomorrow, how to win friends and influence people. We might end up with serial killer buddies. Yikes.

I think in the case of insecurity we worry too much besides that we have the encyclopedias that hopefully they will get banned from the or burn from the public libraries

originally posted by: nugget1
This seems like a too perfect set-up. The more false information gets put out there, the more people will be begging and protesting for government control to protect us from stupidity.

I think it will work.

I have to agree with that. It was the first thing that came to my mind as well.

ETA: as for the case of smell and taste for wild mushrooms, it's actually legit. Been mushroom picking with my parents as a child and read many books about it.
Smell and taste are very important in determining which mushroom you have there as often edibles look similar to toxic ones but the toxic ones have a distinctly different smell.
When they say taste, they don't mean gobble the thing down.
They mean biting a tiny peace off to determine if it's numbing or tastes a certain way, then....
...you spit it out.

That said, I totally agree that these AI books could give wrong info and hence, what I said at the start.

When Wikipedia came out we opened the door to associating crowd bared group think with fact.
The problem there is that the average group is full of idiots.
This so called AI is aggregating the idiocy we've already got and pushing it as truth... for profit

The average person isn't ready, they don't understand that they have become a product... and they're raising children who were sold out before they had a chance to learn to read

Caveat Emptor.

Anyone going to AI for advice deserves what they get.

Cheers

So not only are chatbots writing content but they are acting as the editor-in-chief as well apparently.

I've been working on a creative writing method that could be the parameters for a chatbot to do the same thing. The only part the chatbot will not have is the personal experiences in my life that I weave into the story I'm working on. Also, the story is evolving as I write it, the characters and story are all changing as I give more thought to the plot and how the characters may act based, once again, on my personal life experiences.

The best things to write about are those that you know very well and have real-life experiences with, AI is incapable of that. Now if you have thought about all those things and programmed those parameters into the AI, how much of your life have you put into that AI program that then produces the artificially produced content? Also, after that much thought, you have practically written the content without the AI already.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Well it looks like some companies are on top of this, e.g. originality. ai originality.ai... and I would suspect with each new generation of AI ____bot companies such as these would keep pace with content checkers and plagarism.

As for this specific book, it appears to me that AI amassed it's information from older information or survivalist information sources and has somehow misinterpreted it.

That advice to taste should never apply to mushrooms IMO. I have many old survivalist books and this taste advice really only applies to those that are for whatever reason lost in the bush or somehow in a situation of life and death and are unable to get to a food source. The taste instruction in my reference sources advise to take a tiny bite leave it on your tongue (don't bite) for a short while and wait to see if there is any numbing or burning sensations specifically to green plants and/or bulbs/tubers.

Unrelated to the point, but just dying eat mushrooms

Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than plants, and overall they hardly qualify as food. They taste like dirt and more often than not they'll kill you... probably not the best bet in a survival situation!

Here's the thing, as far as I know, they haven't put any public codes or identifiable marks on AI books.

The 2023 Artificial Intelligence Boom
How To Tell If An Article Was Written With AI

Method 1: Using Undetectable AI's Multi-Detection Tool
Method 2: Originality.ai Detector + Text Visualizer (paid) Acceptable Detection Scores Checking Entire Sites
Method 3: Using GPTZero (very careful & accurate detection)
Method 4: Content at Scale AI Detector (casual writing & free)
Method 5: CopyLeaks AI Detector
Method 6: Giant Language Model Test Room (but it's GPT-2)
Method 7: Writer.com AI Content Detector
Method 8: Technical & Syntactical Signs
Method 9: Verify Your Sources & Author Credibility

goldpenguin.org...

Not as easy as it looks.

The above link is pretty long reading but does bring up several scenarios including AI in schools. How do you know if a students work was written by the student or ChatGPT? Or even paraphrasing AI works......which may be paraphrasing actual researched work.....even harder to detect.

And I definitely see this as a method of controlling society. I know people get tired of the 1984 reference but it's hard to ignore when it's staring you right in the face.

We've definitely entered that fun tunnel of 1984 and there is no escape. If you think I'm wrong, just look at the 'man on the street' interviews of younger people or even middle aged. Look at the lingo used today. But mostly, look at the intelligence and independence and lifestyles of people as a whole. When music, social media and video games fill your waking hours that is the the life you lead, that's what you know.

Sure there are exceptions. But like salmon swimming upstream, independent and intelligent people which are the exception to the rule, will be fighting a flood force of disinformation and propaganda. And if we think the past was bad, the future doesn't look any better.

Teach yourself and your children well so they're strong and independent and not tossed back and forth by the waves of lies and social pressure. Don't be a victim of disinformation.

image that accompanied the article. Mushrooms are some of the most interesting, beautiful, majical, alien looking, dangerous, strange, nutritious organisms growing in our biosphere

originally posted by: quintessentone
a reply to: StoutBroux

...it appears to me that AI amassed it's information from older information or survivalist information sources and has somehow misinterpreted it.

Somehow misinterpreted it.......that is the fundamental error my friend. But hey, it's not all about the mushrooms now is it?

In June of 2023, AI published content (words) passed that of all printed text from all of human history.
At the moment, most of this content is in cyberspace, but that doesn't really matter, when most content is online anyway.
So, its already too late.

Machines make mistakes.
But only people publish them

a reply to: StoutBroux

And it will only get worse. Soon voice and video will be indistinguishable from reality and the average person will accept it without knowing it. Others who yell for regulation: The government will say: "Trust us, we will say what content is real". And you know the real reality: lobbyists with the real Money wanting forever consumption, forever sickness and forever war.

a reply to: StoutBroux

the bad part is when the students who graduate college
with the help of CHAT GTP get jobs and become tomorrows
EXPERTS, and the governmint follows what they say,,,

like NUCLEAR PHYSICISTS working on our nuclear reactors
and you end up with guys like BABCOCK INDUSTRIES

supergluing the heads back on the broken bolts
on NUCLEAR REACTORS on britains best submarines
(life-hack)
i bet them guys Sh*t when THOSE bolts popped back off

but thanks to A.I.........
THE FUTURE IS GONNA BE REALLY, REALLY BRIGHT!

a reply to: sarcasticcritic

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it too.

Kids these days get high paying jobs not knowing what it's like to earn that position, the moment things go dark they'll all fail and things will fall apart in a hurry.

originally posted by: StoutBroux

image that accompanied the article. Mushrooms are some of the most interesting, beautiful, majical, alien looking, dangerous, strange, nutritious organisms growing in our biosphere

originally posted by: quintessentone
a reply to: StoutBroux

...it appears to me that AI amassed it's information from older information or survivalist information sources and has somehow misinterpreted it.

Somehow misinterpreted it.......that is the fundamental error my friend. But hey, it's not all about the mushrooms now is it?

Nice pic - it looks otherworldly.

Well for me it was all about the mushrooms and that is because I knew the information was incorrect just from previous research so that would have prompted the red flags to fly. But you are right, in that, there should be some sort of indication that the AI data has been verified as being as AI generated and as accurate as flawed human-fed data AI can be. Take everything AI generated and with a grain of salt.

What I intend to do going forward is what I've been doing on this site since day 1:

Being skeptical and checking for context, intent (agenda), accuracy, author's credibility (citations?), and bias.

surferseo.com...