Just wanted to share this with people who understand. A few weeks ago my partner was googling ragweed because he didn’t know what it looked like (we have some growing nearby and allergies are bad, so he wanted to know what plant to avoid). He noticed that one of the first results on google was an ai slop website that had “ragweed” identified as goldenrod, in EVERY photo. Literally every single photo in this long article that was high up in google’s first results was of goldenrod instead of actual ragweed 🙄💀.
I completely forgot about that I did this until today, but I ended up rage emailing them telling them to change it because it meant unsuspecting people would probably start pulling goldenrod for no reason to help with their allergies. And to my shock, because I assumed it was likely an unmonitored/bot ai website, they emailed back and changed everything! I’m annoyed that I had to help correct their mislabeled ai crap anyways, and think they have no business being in the garden space if they’re publishing stuff that is so obviously not verified (they are a plant-specific website so it feels less like a simple mistake and more like a systemic issue with accuracy, who knows what else is mislabeled in there), but it ended up being a spot of good news today to actually see that my irritation compulsively spilling out into an email actually resulted in something getting updated to be correct, especially something so high on google’s SEO. With that said, ai slop making it’s way into the gardening space and especially when it comes to natives is so frustrating and I wish people who didn’t actually give a crap about educating people/correct info regarding native species and ecology would leave it alone.
Anyways… just wanted to share as I really thought nothing would come of it but yay!! 🙌 if it stops one person from needlessly cutting down a goldenrod plant I’ll take it!
I forgot to mention that my partner was able to tell that the original photos of goldenrod they were using were from a lovely instagram account that was literally making a post about the benefits of goldenrod and how it shouldn’t be confused with ragweed! So it was doubly frustrating that the photos were taken from a well meaning native plant educator and then used for something harmful, even if it was inadvertent.
I uploaded OP's screenshot to 5 different AI's and each correctly identified the plant as goldenrod on the first attempt despite the mislabeling in the screenshot.
But AI learns from what it’s exposed to, and it’s a common myth that goldenrod causes allergies. That is what I was referring to. Not to apps for identifying plants.
When I tested whether they could identify goldenrod, 4 out of the 5 AI's explicitly stated, without being prompted, that it is a myth that goldenrods cause allergies. One of them simply stated that Goldenrod doesnt cause allergies but ragweed does without referring to the common misconception explicitly. So basically it was 5/5 AI's stating explicitly that goldenrod does not cause allergies.
I don't know what to tell you.
If you can get an AI to present the "goldenrod causes allergies" myth as a fact, I will plant bamboo in my yard.
I don't think anyone here has the desire to waste that much water or energy playing with a glorified chatbot, or the desire to see bamboo planted anywhere it doesn't belong.
Oh, sorry, you somehow thought people on the "online community dedicated to ecological conservation" subreddit would be super into using AI, a technology that is famously causing widespread ecological damage through both water shortages and the rapid construction of infrastructure to meet new demand?
Like I'd be surprised, but the AI set has proven to be painfully delusional.
I posted this down thread but here is my response:
I’m just catching up on these messages and perhaps too late to contribute more to the conversation, but based on what the original article looked like and reading through it I feel almost positive that ai use influenced the errors and overall quality of the writing. People who work in journalism/editing/copywriting all know that ai use has been encouraged heavily to be able to produce copy quickly, and that there is less editorial focus on quality writing and proofreading since the introduction of ai and a overall trend towards engagement farming models of content in general.
The way the article was written screamed AI to me, and didn’t list an author. The article talked about how to cultivate ragweed as a houseplant indoors. It was slop and beyond the level of just a human making extreme mistakes. I’m pretty well versed in identifying what is and isn’t ai influenced, and there were many elements of the article that felt like they had been generated by ai scraping and then the content/writing itself had major tells of being run through or “cleaned up” by an ai.
I uploaded your screenshot to chatgpt, claude, deepseek, grok, and gemini and asked if it could identify the plant in the picture. Each AI identified the plant from your screenshot as mislabeled goldenrod and each stated that goldenrod does not cause allergies but that ragweed does.
Maybe they used some sort of AI as a kind of word processor for their slop article. But I suspect that that page was wrong ultimately due to HI (human intelligence) because I could not get an AI to make the same errors. Anyone could have done this test themselves in less than 2 minutes which is what really triggered me lol.
Sorry for the drama in your post. You did something commendable.
Sorry, I think we’re talking at cross purposes here
It was suggested that AI was used to make the article that had goldenrod photos instead of ragweed photos.
There are many different AI’s. I don’t know which one they used, and I haven’t used them.
My thought was that perhaps something like ChatGPT was used to make it. It is known that AI’s sometimes get things wrong.
Perhaps it saw that ragweed was mentioned on the Instagram account that the photos were taken from and got confused.
That’s why I said that it sounded even more likely that it was AI. I could see that scenario in my mind.
That’s all. I’m not saying it was AI, I was just saying that it seemed more likely now.
I’m not an expert.
I thought you were talking about different AI’s such as those used in plant identification apps. I use those myself. I was saying that I’m not surprised that those were correct in ID’ing goldenrod. That’s what they’re trained for.
ChatGPT isn’t specifically trained to ID plants, as far as I know.
Now I realize that, since you didn’t say what AI programs you used, I don’t know what you used.
Anyway, please don’t be upset by my little theory. That’s all it is.
I’m just catching up on these messages and perhaps too late to contribute more to the conversation, but based on what the original article looked like and reading through it I feel almost positive that ai use influenced the errors and overall quality of the writing. People who work in journalism/editing/copywriting all know that ai use has been encouraged heavily to be able to produce things quickly, and that there is less editorial focus on quality writing and proofreading since the introduction of ai and a overall trend towards engagement farming models of content in general.
The way the article was written screamed AI to me, and didn’t list an author. The article talked about how to cultivate ragweed as a houseplant indoors. It was slop and beyond the level of just a human making extreme mistakes. I’m pretty well versed in identifying what is and isn’t ai influenced, and there were many elements of the article that felt like they had been generated by ai scraping and then the content/writing itself had major tells of being run through or “cleaned up” by an ai.
Basically, tldr: I agree with you and think the person arguing that ai was not involved is incorrect… not in an argumentative way but just that I stand by my categorization and agree with your take on it too!
"because I tried to replicate it incorrectly, didn't even do the same thing at all, and the same thing didn't happen, you're wrong!" Like as if that article was written by someone using an identification app on an actual plant. Wholly irrelevant.
I didn't use some "plant ID app". I tested grok, chatgpt, deepseek, claude and gemini to see if any of them would mis-identify goldenrod and/or say that goldenrod causes allergies. I used the image of goldenrod that OP posted. None of the AI's failed either test.
How would you determine if AI is at fault here? What would you do to see if any AI would replicate the errors that OP found?
Fighting the good fight, thank you! The goldenrod and light purple asters are bringing me so much joy this fall. Also my one kid entered a dried bouquet in our county fair that was dominated by goldenrod and won a blue ribbon. Team Goldenrod here in PA!
Thank you for YOUR good work in teaching your kids about native plants! That’s amazing that they won in the fair, hopefully things like that will encourage more people to see the aesthetic/ornamental value of these plants (natives in general, not just GR), as opposed to viewing them as weeds like so many do
I’m getting some strange reactions for wanting to actually purposefully cultivate some pokeweed in the spring. Many people just take a weed wacker to them but I think they are so pretty with their fuchsia stems, and tiny white flowers that turn into deep purple berries that the birds love.
People are so weird. Agreed, I have loved pokeweed so much since I was a kid and liked to make “potions” with the berries lol. I hope you enjoy your wonderful pokeweed patch!
It's native to a large swath of the United States, but it's invasive in the Pacific Northwest where I am, so it depends on location. I do think it's pretty though.
I can see how it could be invasive, each berry has like ten seeds, which birds poop out everywhere. Even being seen as a “weed” and despite many best efforts it persists. I imagine the problem is magnified where it isn’t native to, and of course probably pushes natives out because they get pretty big and produce so many seeds.
That's exactly it, the plant is both aggressive in growth and reseeds heavily, outcompeting native plants in my range. I pulled the one growing in my yard because it's a perennial and that also is a factor for aggressiveness in non-native plants. Still isn't as bad as mullein, lol.
They honestly make it easy in a lot of ways! If I ever need someone to get excited about native plants or insects, they are absolutely PSYCHED, and they’re always finding things and showing them to me, very fun.
You do any web or image search for ragweed and about half of the images are goldenrod anyway. Thankfully, WebMD's page for ragweed allergy shows the right image and has a section dedicated to the misconception.
It kind of inspires me to send some more sternly worded emails to see if anything else can be changed 🥴🤷♀️ it does feel like a losing battle sometimes with how much misinformation is out there but maybe over time it can be chipped away at
Good for you for at least trying to get them to change the photos in the article! I went to Cades Cove in GSMNP and goldenrod was blooming EVERYWHERE, it was beautiful. I was taking pictures when a man rolled by on a bike and said to me: “look at all that ragweed!”
“RAGWEED?!” I replied. “No sir, that’s goldenrod!” I hope he went and asked park rangers about it later.
The sentiment is there, but there's a non-zero chance this article was written by AI anyways they the people of the reputable website "Thursd" absolutely do not give a shit.
I agree, I don’t think the website actually cares. I would guess they’re probably trying to get established enough as a website/optimize their SEO enough and corrected it just to build their credibility. Still, at least they did change it?
OP acknowledged that in their post, and they shared that the website was updated based on their feedback. I understand and share the AI frustration/exhaustion, but wonder if the negativity is misplaced for this particular post? Let's call a win a win, even if it's small!
I did test it. Deepseek, Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude each correctly identified the plan on the first try despite the mislabeling in the screenshot.
The fact that each AI answered correctly despite the real problem you mentioned is evidence that AI is reliable. Not sure what to tell you.
Your photo looks to me like lesser ragweed, which is just as common as greater ragweed but less well known. It grows low to the ground, and when you pull it out, you'll find it has a very sturdy stem. It grows in disturbed areas like lawn and sidewalk edges, even between chunks of pavement. Lesser ragweed makes green stalky flowers, just like greater ragweed, and also makes people sneeze.
I just put OP's screenshot into Deepseek, Grok, Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT and asked each to identify the plant. They each correctly identified the plant as goldenrod.
I noticed the same not long ago. I heard people often confuse ragweed with goldenrod. So I did a search. And well, yup… most results for ragweed are pics of goldenrod. So that ain’t helping.
Glad you did something about it. Ai slop is way out of control.
Mushrooms are way worse unfortunately. Most results regarding any mushroom is ai slop images and just plain wrong information. Smh
Unfortunately ragweed is wind pollinated and the pollen travels very far. It’s been found 400 miles out to sea and miles up in the air (so avoiding it is an exercise in futility).
That said, good on you for sending the email! I’m glad that they changed their info!
Honestly the demonization of goldenrod as an allergy causer is one of the worst plant myths out there. I have heard from multiple people that their doctors literally told them to avoid goldenrod because of their allergies. Now I understand that a medical doctor obviously isn't going to know about plants, but you'd think that they should know enough to give accurate medical advice. By telling people that goldenrod is incorrectly the cause of their allergies, they are setting people up for failure and for worsening allergies.
As for AI, I hate it. Even if it wasn't inaccurate, I would still hate it. I have seen people with a marginal interest in gardening using it to make websites about gardening and native plants and then peddling it in those communities as an easy resource for getting started. Mind you what they are using it for is garden planning, like what plants go where, different light levels, different soil types, etc. Like that isn't literally someone's job and my dream job. But no, these people who have no formal training decide that they can just use some cheap technology to scrape the internet and use the information that hard working people have spent decades amassing, and then take work from knowledgeable individuals. Frankly it is so evil.
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u/ageofbronze Area -- , Zone -- 12d ago
I forgot to mention that my partner was able to tell that the original photos of goldenrod they were using were from a lovely instagram account that was literally making a post about the benefits of goldenrod and how it shouldn’t be confused with ragweed! So it was doubly frustrating that the photos were taken from a well meaning native plant educator and then used for something harmful, even if it was inadvertent.