Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI’s inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned about the risks of AI-generated foraging guides. Experts note that safely identifying wild mushrooms requires careful research and experience that an AI system does not have. Amazon has since removed some books flagged as AI-generated, but more may exist. Detecting AI-generated books and authors can be difficult as the systems can fabricate author bios and images. Relying on multiple credible sources, as well as guidance from local foraging groups, is advised for safely pursuing mushroom foraging.
As always, the dose makes the poison.
A common scenario is people picking the wrong species and then not just eating a small bite, but cooking an entire meal and eating that.
A small bite may not kill you, but just one mushroom (50g) can be enough to do it.
There are some toxic mfs out there and they can be mistaken for edible lookalikes by inexperienced foragers.
One of the people I dated once confused wild onions with Death Camas in her omelets. She and her father got extremely sick and at least one got admitted to the hospital. Luckily, nobody died. Luckily, death Camas aren’t as toxic as some mushrooms. I wouldn’t dick with mushrooms even if I had an ID book, though.
The stakes just aren’t worth it. I had a book on mushrooms as a kid, and after reading it cover to cover, I decided it just wasn’t worth the risk of misidentification. Many look similar, and the edible-looking ones are sometimes quite toxic.