Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 123 posts

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#81

Post by ToValueFunfetti »

matsemann wrote: post #74
layer8 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not an AI apologist by any stretch, but how is this different from some incompetent person criminally-negligently assembling and publishing a book without AI help? Shouldn’t existing legislation already cover this? I’d also assume that most books will be written with AI help in some way or another in the future.

Has someone said it's different? It will just become more viable to do these scams now, as LLMs can generate plausible text.

Grandparent is saying we need more regulation; parent is saying we are sufficiently regulated such that this is already illegal.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#82

Post by andybak »

GaggiX wrote: post #65
samtheDamned wrote: post #6

This was something that was bound to happen and is going to happen again unless we get more serious regulation around AI publishing. > It lists the author as having a Masters Degree in Mycology from University of East Ontario. A search later revealed there is no "University of East Ontario." This has got to be criminal negligence.

>This was something that was bound to happen and is going to happen again Just to clarify, the reddit post is 99% creative writing, it's a fake story created by a new Reddit account.

Do you have proof or did you mean "as it's a brand new account then it's probably made up"?

The difference between those two things is rather important.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#83

Post by lelandfe »

layer8 wrote: post #34
samtheDamned wrote: post #6

This was something that was bound to happen and is going to happen again unless we get more serious regulation around AI publishing. > It lists the author as having a Masters Degree in Mycology from University of East Ontario. A search later revealed there is no "University of East Ontario." This has got to be criminal negligence.

I’m not an AI apologist by any stretch, but how is this different from some incompetent person criminally-negligently assembling and publishing a book without AI help? Shouldn’t existing legislation already cover this? I’d also assume that most books will be written with AI help in some way or another in the future.

If an incompetent bad actor wrote a book about web development best practices, without any knowledge of the frontend, even a layperson would quickly realize it was nonsense.

An LLM writing the same would instead create a plausible but wrong book. A layperson could be tricked by this – crucially wrong sentences would be sandwiched in between pages and pages of superficially right ones.

There is a vast ocean of difference between these two. Producing something plausible with no foreknowledge of the subject matter became possible.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#84

Post by [deleted] »

jowdones wrote: post #42

Well the morale is: don't eat wild mushrooms no matter the source (pick them yourself or picked by an "expert"). At least that's my rule. There's a ton of cultivated mushrooms and a ton of other tasty safe foods to choose from, I don't give a fuck how exotic the wild mushrooms flavor would be. I'm not curios. Because curiosity killed the cat.

[deleted]

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#86

Post by [deleted] »

jMyles wrote: post #57

It's wild to me that these sorts of stories provoke - on HN of all places - frothy calls for state intervention. Is it by design? Is this some dark campaign to stifle open source LLM development? Some mushrooms are horribly poisonous. That's the nature into which we were born. It's not a consequence of policy, and won't be fixed by policy. People need to learn to be careful about sources of information, with care in…

[deleted]

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#87

Post by steelframe »

I generally treat anything on Reddit as first and foremost motivated by a desire for fake Internet points rather than by a desire to share a real story or have a real conversation. I'd at least expect a reputable journalist to pick up on this story if there really was anything to it.

Regardless of the veracity of the claims in that post, there's not much new here aside from the fact that the distributor generated the content using AI rather than making it up themselves. Quackery and snake oil has always been a thing, and plenty of people have been seriously injured or died from misinformation about food safety or medicine.

The next time someone hesitates to seek professional medical attention for a problem because they got a blessing from the elders at their church and they think God will heal them as soon as they start having more faith, we can start talking about where we can really draw the line between personal responsibility and holding liars liable.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#88

Post by dvh »

I am of the opinion that you should only be hunting mushrooms if your family has been hunting mushrooms for generations (I could count 4+ in my family). Or at least spend few years under some patronage. This is not something you should learn from books. Also you can't just learn 1 mushroom, you need to know them all even if you only eat one.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#89

Post by sixothree »

GaggiX wrote: post #65
samtheDamned wrote: post #6

This was something that was bound to happen and is going to happen again unless we get more serious regulation around AI publishing. > It lists the author as having a Masters Degree in Mycology from University of East Ontario. A search later revealed there is no "University of East Ontario." This has got to be criminal negligence.

>This was something that was bound to happen and is going to happen again Just to clarify, the reddit post is 99% creative writing, it's a fake story created by a new Reddit account.

There are exactly zero pictured provided by the poster. Additionally, any and all information provided is intentionally vague.

Re: Family poisoned after using AI-generated mushroom identification book

#90

Post by meroes »

jMyles wrote: post #57

It's wild to me that these sorts of stories provoke - on HN of all places - frothy calls for state intervention. Is it by design? Is this some dark campaign to stifle open source LLM development? Some mushrooms are horribly poisonous. That's the nature into which we were born. It's not a consequence of policy, and won't be fixed by policy. People need to learn to be careful about sources of information, with care in…

I’ve watched so many communities devolve because of rage bait, which is often AI generated. I doubt any community is immune. It seems to be an inherent weakness that properly targeted ragebait can subsume them.
Post reply on HN