Artificial intelligence companies are making millions, if not billions of dollars these days, but that doesn’t mean that their systems are flawless. In fact, they make a whole lot of mistakes, and many of times those mistakes are costly.
Case in point: A farmer recently followed an AI chatbot’s advice about pesticides, and a million square feet of his crops were dead the next day.
In Chuzhou, Anhui Province, mainland China, a 67-year-old farmer used herbicides incorrectly, killing many sesame seedlings and destroying 150 acres (about 10 hectares or 1,000,000 square feet) of farmland in a matter of hours. Why? Because he trusted artificial intelligence.
According to Taiwanese news outlet CTWant, for about a year, the farmer had been relying on an AI chatbot to plan farming schedules and get fertilizer recommendations. However, when he sought guidance on managing pests in his sesame crop in July, he paid a high price for his faith in the chatbot.
The AI chatbot came up with a plan and rather than consult with a human expert or testing a small area out first, he went ahead and applied the deadly mixture to his crops. The next day, both the weeds, as well as his crops were dead.
When he later consulted the AI chatbot, it pointed out that the formula he used may have been the main cause of his crop’s death.
“If you spray it, the next day the seedlings won’t survive. Both the grass and the seedlings will die, and the seedlings will die even faster,” the farmer said the AI chatbot told him.
Whoops. So, by ignoring a disclaimer that the AI chatbot’s information may be incorrect, he ended up costing himself about $22,200.