By Tim Binnall
A Chinese farmer who had come to rely on artificial intelligence for all manner of insights had his trust shattered when an AI-supplied weedkiller concoction wiped out a massive swath of his crops. The rather instructive case reportedly began months ago when the man, identified as Wu, first started using the fantastic technology despite his doubts about its utility. The farmer's skepticism slowly subsided over the course of countless conversations with the AI chatbot, during which it proved particularly helpful in his work.
Alas, Wu's confidence in the technology crumbled last month when he turned to the AI for advice on how to eradicate weeds among his crops. The chatbot responded with a specific recipe of chemicals and, without doing any additional investigation, the farmer dutifully sprayed the concoction on a huge field of sesame seedlings. To his profound horror, when Wu woke up the next day, he discovered a staggering 25 acres of his crops had been wiped out by the weedkiller.
In a testament to the addictive nature of AI, Wu immediately turned to the chatbot for an explanation and was informed that one of the prescribed chemicals was almost certainly to blame. The farmer subsequently found out that the substance is used for targeted weed killing rather than something to be applied to an entire field of crops. Unfortunately for Wu, he had no recourse in the matter as the chatbot software featured a clear warning that one should verify any answers generated by the AI as they "may be incorrect."