‘Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon
Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI's inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned about the risks of AI-generated foraging guides. Experts note that safely identifying wild mushrooms requires careful research and experience that an AI system does not have. Amazon has since removed some books flagged as AI-generated, but more may exist. Detecting AI-generated books and authors can be difficult as the systems can fabricate author bios and images. Relying on multiple credible sources, as well as guidance from local foraging groups, is advised for safely pursuing mushroom foraging.
This is a disaster waiting to happen, especially when reputable mushroom books look like this
No doubt, this is the best mushroom book imo. It's on my shelf as I type this.
Wait... is that a joke? AI mistake, guy with a trumpet for a hand, or weird photo angle? Now I'm confused 😯
Heh no that's the mushroom forager's bible right there, going back many years, it's assigned reading for mycology students and very reputable. It's funny how much it looks ML generated, but it well predates ML image generation. For reference, he's holding a flesh colored mushroom and a trumpet.
Oh, now I see it! It's a trombone, half hidden behind his leg, and his fingers under some huge chanterelles... guess that's the joke? What a weird photo.
Never seen that guide, guess it hasn't been translated. We only have some Cantharellus Lutescens around here anyway, which don't look anything like that, so the joke would be lost in translation. Well, TIL.
Could you clarify what the joke is? Is there a pun here that I am missing picking up on?
This entire thing is absolutely fascinating.
Chanterelles, start with "chant" as in music, have a trumpet-like cap like the trombone cup, the Latin name Cantharellus is derived from "cantharus" meaning a chalice, cup.
It's only missing having a chorus, a mug, and taking the photo in Chanterelle, France:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanterelle,_Cantal
Are there any other good mushroom bible books to check out?
Oh dear.
That is truly a terrible idea, and Amazon should be liable since they do exercise control over what they sell (which I know, because I have two books for sale there).
ooh can I ask what books? I'm just curious 😅
But if I tell you, I doxx myself :)
Ah the balancing act of marketing one's stuff online and potentially outing yourself online
This is why you should always have a multitude of alt accounts for different reasons
Ie FarceMultiplier and FarceDivider, where FarceDivider is used to build a specific public facing image for when you talk about your book, and FarceMultiplier is used for shit posting.
That's not a bad idea. I'll message you with a link. Won't be Amazon, but what I'll send you is there as well. I make zero money from Amazon sales. It's a terrible platform for minor authors.
Mind if I ask what a better option would be? Looking to release some work myself in the next year and was going to start looking at which options would be best.
Since my books are for TTRPGs, selling on DriveThruRPG has been better by far. I've made hundreds of dollars from there and under $10 on Amazon. Amazon tricks authors by allowing them to publish there then pushing those authors to pay to advertise their own books...which I did, but made zero difference. I'm also on Barnes and Noble, but made no money at all there.
However, as an author I've used their services to print copies of my books to put in games stores and that's been very cost effective and made me decent money.
Nice, some of my material is also ttrpg related so that's especially helpful haha Thanks!
I love DriveThruRPG for grabbing RPG books, I’m super happy to know it is better for the author!
using amazon for books is like using aol for internet access
not arguing, but what do you use instead (other than your local book store)?
https://m.alibris.com
Ooooh, thanks for this! They have a UK site too, and they have second-hand books. I already did most of my college textbook shopping on AbeBooks (owned by Amazon), but if Alibris have the other ones I need, phase 2 will happen there.
Is there a way to see specific reviews of sellers or is it strictly a star system? I love the site design, it doesn’t e n d l e s s l y dick around with you like amazon’s current setup.
I do not recall, i have not used it much since i got my college textbooks in 08.
lol my city has several libraries which aren't book stores.
What do you mean? Kindle store is not bad at all
yeah, where else do you expect self published authors to make their mark?
I've extremely enjoyed the self-pub route so many authors can take these days. Some of my favorite series come from people who didn't even want to bother with the traditional publisher and I am so much happier for it.
So I mean, if you have some alternatives for self published authors to reach a broad audience with a minimum of fuss, that's great. I'm just not seeing a valid replacement, myself.
edit: that said, some are dumpster fires in a pit of eternal despair. but I'm a big boy, I can figure that out for myself.
I very much appreciate the self publishing that's been possible, but I do know that the way they enable this is pretty exploitive and I think we still have massive room for improvement. My understanding is that it relies heavily on exclusivity agreements to force the majority of players onto their platform. I think we would've seen the Amazon self publishing business smacked down by anti trust lawsuits ages ago if we lived in a more sane timeline.
Despite the exploitation going on now, it's still better than the old monopolies the traditional publishers held, but I hope we can eventually see self publishing flourish outside of the Amazon ecosystem
yeah thats on me. im old and remember them for selling physical crap forever ago, plus i forgot people pay for digital stuff.. again, not my thing.
Oh grandpa, digital stuff is great! You can read any of those hundreds of books on the go (given you didn't forget your glasses, that is)! You should definitely try it next time you go fishing!
If you forget your glasses all ya gotta do is enlarge the text size. Digital is pretty groovy.
Until they pull a 1984 and delete your copy of 1984
I mean, do you really want to miss out on such a real life dystopian experience?
I bought most of my college books used on Amazon way back when. I did that again the last few years, sometimes Amazon had the best price and or lead time. I also used a few other sites.
Yikes, and I thought the AI generated children's books were bad for society.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why?
Robert Evans wrote a post on it and did multiple podcast episodes.
The TL&DR is that AI-generated children's books are crap, without a coherent storyline or any literary niceties like "foreshadowing" and "beginning middle and end". Kids are still learning what stories look like, so if you hand them AI-generated stuff they might know it's unsatisfying, but they can't put into words why their books are wrong.
Sadly, it's another hustle. If you spend enough time on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TIkTok, you may see ads for "business opportunities," which include a bunch of ways to spend lots of wasted time on things that will supposedly give you "passive income". A lot of them consist of stringing together crude tools to supposedly run a business without actually running anything. For instance, you can learn how to set up a business on Amazon where someone else manufactures your products and Amazon stores and ships them, and supposedly you're now a business owner. Obviously, it doesn't work.
One version of this is becoming a "published author" by having stuff written either by ChatGPT or what are essentially slaves in the global south, and then self-publishing it as ebooks on Amazon.
Again, there's no real money or sense of accomplishment, but people are desperate, and so people try it.
No "big" money... but some people have either little income, or live in a country where even a "small" amount of money can go a long way.
This is my experience so don't rely on it: Most mushrooms won't kill you but some will make you so sick that you wished you died. Even a small bite of the deadly Destroying Angle will most likely not kill you. Only eat a very small amount of a new-to-you mushroom because even safe ones may trigger a fatal allergic reaction, also "safe" Morel mushrooms have killed people who really, really over consumed them.
Get a real "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms", book and download the "Seek" app for your phone. Find a person who experienced and go slow. NEVER get careless or over confident.
Then there's the permanent kidney failure...
It's worth pointing out that this is because the author is a foreign national. Americans with permanent kidney failure are guaranteed Medicare even if they're under 65, and Medicare part B covers outpatient dialysis in full. Signing that into law is one of the few good things Richard Nixon ever did.
Thanks, interesting. I'm glad America gives everyone dialysis too. I live in a country with universal healthcare, so I sort of skimmed over the cost aspect because that wouldn't be an issue here.
It is more the physical, quality-of-life-ruining aspects that give me the horror. I read an article once where a family of 4 all had severe permanent kidney damage from eating the wrong mushrooms.
It's also worth pointing out that $1,000 per session cost is probably the least bad thing about dialysis.
That's not very reassuring
I don't think it was meant to be reassuring. @rayyyy@kbin.social is right, don't mess around with fungi. You can get irreversible kidney damage.
Filtering by doing your research before ingesting one that should keep you from dying almost guaranteed.
In the US about 420 people die every year from salmonella poisoning usually incurred from food, often bought at the grocery store.
Meanwhile 3 people die from mushroom poisoning. And with a good book i'd say it is quite straightforward. My mushroom book provides an info for every specimen whether it has a poisonous look-alike and what specifics to look out for. If i am still uncertain, i just dont eat it.
Just watch out for the brain worms in unprepared foods, lmao
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/28/live-worm-living-womans-brain-australia-depression-forgetfulness
You can eat any mushroom.... At least once.
Also, there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but no old, bold mushroom hunters.
You can eat lava... but only once.
You can easily take a bullet to the brain.... Once
As always, the dose makes the poison.
A common scenario is people picking the wrong species and then not just eating a small bite, but cooking an entire meal and eating that.
A small bite may not kill you, but just one mushroom (50g) can be enough to do it.
There are some toxic mfs out there and they can be mistaken for edible lookalikes by inexperienced foragers.
One of the people I dated once confused wild onions with Death Camas in her omelets. She and her father got extremely sick and at least one got admitted to the hospital. Luckily, nobody died. Luckily, death Camas aren't as toxic as some mushrooms. I wouldn't dick with mushrooms even if I had an ID book, though.
The stakes just aren't worth it. I had a book on mushrooms as a kid, and after reading it cover to cover, I decided it just wasn't worth the risk of misidentification. Many look similar, and the edible-looking ones are sometimes quite toxic.
People need to stop using zeroGPT it does not accurately detect ai generated text.
Well, apart from that you can also make other mistakes like eating mushrooms undercooked or eating too old specimens leading to a food poisoning. Also, there are mushrooms that are quite edible for a long time but can cause organ failure and lead to death after many years.
Anyways, it seems like a really bad idea to let an AI decide what of all of this information is important and how to communicate it.
Amazon won’t care because nobody will hold Amazon accountable.