A chatbot recommended a chemical mixture that included fomesafen – a herbicide used to kill broadleaf weeds. The farmer sprayed this mixture on his fields without consulting a specialist.
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The next day, the consequences became clear: about 10 hectares (100,000 square meters) of sesame were destroyed.
Trying to find out what happened, the farmer contacted the same chatbot again. This time he himself indicated the problem: sesame is also a broadleaf plant, so such a herbicide is fatal to it.
“If you spray it, the seedlings won’t survive the next day,” the farmer said.
This case reminds us that artificial intelligence is not a source of truth. Chatbots can provide convincingly sounding but incorrect advice – and relying on it to solve real problems can have very costly consequences.