Identification applications of mushrooms, too their trust can be dramatic!
To rely entirely on technology without questioning it can sometimes be dangerous, even for things that may seem insignificant at first. The application Mushroom, used for the identification of fungi, among precisely in this kind of considerations.
Many of us enjoy walks in the forest, especially if there is something good to eat: chestnuts, truffles, wild strawberries and other berries ... as well as mushrooms! Their gathering finds followers all over the world, but we know: we must know how to choose them, because some of them can cause damage to man, sometimes going to death.
Nowadays, as urban lifestyle is the most popular, our ability to recognize mushrooms has drastically decreased in recent decades, unless you are a ranger or fervent amateur who has read a few books on the subject, it is not easy to start looking for them and to know how to differentiate the succulent chanterelles from certain deadly amanites
A few days ago, the application Mushroom - Instant mushroom plant identification was trying to fill this lack of knowledge. As the name suggests, the application is designed to identify any variety of fungus instantly using image recognition. Nicholas Sheriff, a creator from Silicon Valley, believes that this application is capable of establishing itself as a "Bible of mushroom hunters" and states that "nobody is able to memorize all the species of mushrooms in the world, Even a genius. "
On this last point, we can only give reason to Nicholas Sheriff, on the other hand the person does not hide the fact that it is a beta, therefore non-infallible, which is confirmed by a Motherboard article As well as some readable comments on the platforms making the Mushroom application available to the public.
Thus, the artificial intelligence of the application does not always recognize the fungi that are presented to it and can be mistaken about their identification, which can be incredibly dangerous when you learn a little more about some varieties simply Capable of causing death. Morality: the application must keep an advisory aspect and should not be taken as a reference, otherwise it may regret it later ... by extension, this applies to many online services and other technologies, so caution is setting.
It is safer to buy what is sold in the market than wild mushrooms.
Unless an "app" has a built gene sequencer and reader, some say there will never be an app that is fit for identifying mushrooms.