Climbers rescued from Mount Shasta after relying on ChatGPT for trip planning

"Three California college students had to be rescued from Mount Shasta on Monday during a poorly planned summit climb in which they overshot their itinerary, meandered off-route and ran out of food and water."

and

"Then in August, while hiking in Shasta's popular Bunny Flat area, a man stopped rangers to ask for directions. He showed them a print-out map he'd been following and explained that he'd prompted ChatGPT to produce it for him.

"It was terrible — terrible — not even close to accurate," Meyers said. "It had route lines and place names that were totally off — just ridiculous. We were like, dude, you gotta throw that away." "

Sorry I LOL'd. Too funny.

More serious though:

"On Saturday, the trio of climbers, all from California, left from the Clear Creek Trailhead on Shasta's southeastern side with a plan to camp partway up before making a summit push early Sunday morning, according to a forest service report. They'd asked ChatGPT for specific guidance, researched the climb on YouTube, and planned to use the AllTrails phone app to navigate the giant peak, the report said.

Clear Creek is a popular late-summer route because, when it melts out, it offers climbers a non-technical way up the peak — it can be done in hiking boots without ice axes or crampons. However, it's an 8-mile journey that gains 6,500 feet in elevation, and guides caution that it is not to be taken lightly.

The climbers reached the summit Sunday evening — far later than the mid-afternoon turnaround time recommended by Shasta climbing experts. They'd clumsily navigated the mountain's rugged volcanic terrain by following the line of a digital map in the AllTrails phone app, misreading it as the way of an established trail."