“Revolutionary” application for determination of the fungi of the deadly
The new app, promising to apply “revolutionary artificial intelligence algorithms” to determine the appearance of mushrooms on the picture, scientists and journalists recognized the deadly threat.
About the results of the test program reports The Verge.
The app was designed by a designer from Silicon valley by Nicholas Sheriff. It is simply called “Mushroom” (Mushroom) and is available in the App Store. “Just point your smartphone at any mushroom, and our revolutionary AI will instantly detect it. He also works with flowers and birds,” reads the app description. However, the journalists test showed that the app can’t identify any mushrooms or shiitake.
Of course, in the App Store, and Google Play, available dozens of similar applications. However, they are directories with pictures and do not claim the possession of “machine vision” and “revolutionary artificial intelligence”. The use of these terms gives users a false sense of confidence in the correctness of the program. In the case of mushrooms this could have dangerous consequences.
Finally, the main problem of application is that the mushroom is very often impossible to determine just by appearance. “Take, for example, poisonous mushrooms yellow. It is not much different from ordinary mushroom. To accurately identify a dangerous fungus needs to break his leg (inside), or smell it — it smells like carbolic acid,” he told The Verge microbiologist Colin Davidson.