Amazon Is Filled with Bogus AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books that Could Cause Poisoning Deaths

A surge in AI-generated mushroom foraging books on Amazon has raised alarms among experts, who warn that such guides, filled with misinformation about poisonous mushrooms, could pose life-threatening risks to consumers.

404 Media reports that The New York Mycological Society has raised an alarm over the increasing number of AI-generated mushroom foraging books appearing on Amazon. According to the society, these books could pose serious risks to public health. “These AI-generated foraging books could actually kill people if they eat the wrong mushroom because a guidebook written by an AI prompt said it was safe,” the NYMS stated on social media.

Sigrid Jakob, president of the New York Mycological Society, elaborated on the risks involved in using AI-generated foraging guides. “There are hundreds of poisonous fungi in North America and several that are deadly,” Jakob said. “They can look similar to popular edible species. A poor description in a book can mislead someone to eat a poisonous mushroom.”

Text detection tools have indicated that many of these books are predominantly written by AI, with some showing more than 85 percent AI-generated content. Despite this, these books are often marketed as if they were written by humans, making it challenging for consumers to identify their true origin.

In response to the issue, Amazon has removed some of the flagged AI-generated books from its platform. “All publishers in the store must adhere to our content guidelines, regardless of how the content was created,” said Amazon spokesperson Ashley Vanicek. “We’re committed to providing a safe shopping and reading experience for our customers and we take matters like this seriously.”

Mushroom foraging is a complex field that often requires years of research and firsthand experience for accurate documentation. “Human-written books can take years to research and write,” Jakob noted.

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