AI Chatbot Added to Mushroom Foraging Facebook Group Immediately Gives Tips for Cooking Dangerous Mushroom.

Perhaps artificial intelligence really is trying to kill us - perhaps not in general, but this peculiar chatbot added by Meta within a Facebook group dedicated to mushroom picking almost certainly desires human suffering. Let's leave light-hearted jokes aside, however, as the consumption of dangerous mushrooms often has fatal consequences.

Facebook has always been a hub of activity for any enthusiast: there are groups and pages dedicated to the most diverse topics, so it is not surprising that there are several also dedicated to picking and consuming mushrooms. Users can post pictures of the specimens they have found to get information from other, more experienced members, and perhaps some culinary advice on how to cook them.

FungiFriend, a chatbot placed by Meta within the group, should play a similar role: helping members to identify the subjects and share accurate and truthful information. However, when asked by a user how to cook ‘Sarcosphaera coronaria’, a specimen that hyperaccumulates arsenic and has caused fatal poisonings, FungiFriend replied to ‘sauté it in butter or add it to soups and stews’.