EXPERTS are warning against using some mushroom foraging books on Amazon amid fears they may have been penned by artificial intelligence – and advise you to try potentially deadly fungi.

Amazon’s marketplace seems to be inundated with books believed to be generated by AI, many of them passing off as human-authored texts.

Travel books have become a favoured category for such deceptive works, while DIY food and drink guides are springing up as people seek ways to beat the cost of living crisis.

Recently, a series of books offering guidance to mushroom foragers suspected to be written by AI chatbots have surfaced on Amazon.

Examples of these books are “Wild Mushroom Cookbook: form [sic] forest to gourmet plate, a complete guide to wild mushroom cookery” and “The Supreme Mushrooms Books Field Guide of the South-West”.

Originality.ai, a company specialising in detecting AI-generated content, analysed four samples from these books for The Guardian.

They reported that each sample scored 100% on their AI detection test, indicating high confidence that they were produced by an AI chatbot, possibly ChatGPT.

The nonsense words from the books contained phrases such as “The sweet smell of freshly cooked mushrooms wafted through the air, bringing back fond memories of my mother” and “Foraging for wild mushrooms is a deeply rewarding experience that connects us with nature’s abundance and the rich tapestry of flowers that the Earth provides.”

Leon Frey, a field mycologist and foraging guide at Family Foraging Kitchen in Cornwall, criticised the books for serious inaccuracies, including dangerous suggestions such as using “smell and taste” for identifying mushrooms, a method that should never be recommended.

“This seems to encourage tasting as a method of identification. This should absolutely not be the case,” he told The Guardian

Mushroom varieties, like the deadly poisonous death cap, which can easily be confused for safe-to-eat types, are toxic.

Frey noted that one book even mentions the lion’s mane fungus, an edible but protected species in the UK, advising against its picking.

He recommended selecting books from trustworthy sources.

Professor Myron Smith, a fungi specialist at Carleton University in Canada, branded the books “totally irresponsible”. He emphasised the similarities between edible and poisonous mushrooms.

“Some of the differences between edibles and non-edibles are very subtle and it really takes an experienced eye and knowledge to discriminate between them.”

The Guardian has highlighted the books it believes are an issue to Amazon, who have said it was reviewing these books.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We take matters like this seriously and are committed to providing a safe shopping and reading experience. We’re looking into this.”