Books on mushroom foraging written by AI may have disastrous consequences

A recent expose by The Guardian has revealed a number of books giving advice on the potentially dangerous topic of mushroom picking which were written by AI and contain misleading advice.

The issue of AI-produced books being passed off as human-conducted research has become a problem on Amazon.com specifically.

Such forgeries have mainly been found in the travel section but now are infecting the food section, especially amateur foraging. Titles range from Wild Mushroom Cookbook: from forest to gourmet plate, a complete guide to wild mushroom cookery to The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West.

Originality.ai, a company that tests for AI content being passed as real worked with The Guardian to analyse the books. Their system showed a 100% probability that these works are not the work of humans.

Quotes from the books include, “The sweet smell of freshly cooked mushrooms wafted through the air, bringing back fond memories of my mother” and “Foraging for wild mushrooms is a deeply rewarding experience that connects us with nature’s abundance and the rich tapestry of flowers that the Earth provides.”

The books make nonsensical claims

The books clearly make nonsensical and incorrect statements. The Guardian claims to have failed to reach any of the supposed authors of the books.

Leon Frey, is a foraging guide and field mycologist at Cornwall-based Family Foraging Kitchen, who runs foraging trips for the uninitiated. He told the Guardian that the parts of the books he had been shown had grave mistakes, for example referring to “smell and taste” as a method to identify mushrooms. “This seems to encourage tasting as a method of identification. This should absolutely not be the case,” he said.

Professor Myron Smith, who specializes in fungi at Carleton University in Canada, said the books were “totally irresponsible”, remarking that, “Some of the differences between edibles and non-edibles are very subtle and it really takes an experienced eye and knowledge to discriminate between them.”