{
  "id": 5192730,
  "title": "AI-assisted mushroom hunting is a recipe for a bad trip",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/ai-assisted-mushroom-hunting-is-a-recipe-for-a-bad-trip-5192730",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-02T20:34:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/09/02/ai-assisted-mushroom-hunting-is-a-recipe-for-a-bad-trip/5294060"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Polish software engineer Piotr Migdał ran an experiment using AI models to test their ability to identify mushrooms safely for consumption. He used a dataset of 55 species, comparing 16 models on 1,040 photos, running 20 photos per species when available. The best performing model, Gemini-3.8-flash, was correct 65 percent of the time, identifying the correct species in its top five guesses 85 percent of the time. However, there's a 35 percent chance it would get the identification wrong, making AI assistance unreliable for mushroom identification. Other models, like Qwen3.8-27b, performed even worse, correctly identifying mushrooms as safe or poisonous only 13 percent of the time. The most dangerous mistakes made by AI models included mistaking a deadly webcap for a chanterelle, the death cap for a safe mushroom, and the dapperling for a closely related but edible species. Migdał emphasized the risks of relying on AI for mushroom identification, stating that \"AI slop … might be annoying, but it is fixable with a few prompts, or a manual edit,\" but that \"it is much better than having to prompt 'Do I need a liver transplant?'\" He recommends trusting one's own knowledge or experience in mushroom hunting, as even well-trained humans can struggle to differentiate between dangerous and safe species.",
  "summary": "Even the best model gets fungus identification right just 65% of the time - talk about a false friend",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Software",
        "title": "AI-assisted mushroom hunting is a recipe for a bad trip",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/ai-assisted-mushroom-hunting-is-a-recipe-for-a-bad-trip",
        "published": "2026-09-02T20:34:41.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}