AI-written mushroom foraging guides on Amazon tell readers to identify wild fungi by smell and taste

Four mushroom foraging guides sold on Amazon scored 100% on Originality.ai's AI detection test, and at least one of them recommends tasting wild mushrooms to work out what they are. The prose runs to lines like "The sweet smell of freshly cooked mushrooms wafted through the air, bringing back fond memories of my mother." Titles include Wild Mushroom Cookbook: form [sic] forest to gourmet plate and The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West.

Leon Frey, a field mycologist at Cornwall's Family Foraging Kitchen, said the samples "seem to encourage tasting as a method of identification. This should absolutely not be the case." One book lists lion's mane, edible but a protected species in the UK, as something to pick. Myron Smith, a fungi specialist at Carleton University, called the books "totally irresponsible," noting that the differences between edibles and poisonous lookalikes like the death cap are subtle. The New York Mycological Society posted that Amazon had been "inundated with AI foraging and identification books." Amazon said it was reviewing the titles flagged by the Guardian; 404 Media reported the books first.