Skip to content

Comment on Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?

Comments

Ha! I just had a very interesting conversation with ChatGPT about a mushroom that I found in my front lawn. I am 99% sure it was an edible oyster mushroom which included analysis the of the size, growing substrate (dead ash tree root which turns out to be a useful identifying characteristic -- I learned a lot about mycology in a short time). Plus I don't use fertilizers, herbicide, pesticides, fungicides (obviously) on my lawn so I think it would have been quite tasty. Did I eat it? Hell, no. But then I got to thinking, would I trust a human to correctly identify it? I am actually not sure I would either. Penalty is just too great for misidentification LLM or not.

This time of year it is common for folks to mistake Dear mushrooms (Pluteus cervinus) with the poisonous juvenile invasive Amanita family.

Amanita travels everywhere with wood mulch around local gardens, and is practically impossible to get rid of once established.

Stay safe, and never believe your own lying eyes when it comes to mycology. Could join a local university hosted public outreach foraging club, as the experts enjoy nothing more that spotting weird looking finds. =3

oysters are pretty safe

Yes but you need to be sure it is an Oyster Mushroom in the first place.

Right, which isn't tough, it's a pretty safe mushroom to forage.

I mean, there's a reason the Old Testament banned them. Blech

? Mushrooms.

Haha no but it should have. I meant oysters and shellfish in general

Great stereotypical engineer's response.

How is that?

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.