Using AI to spot edible mushrooms could kill you

In mushroom foraging, there’s little room for error. Researcher Rick Claypool learned this the hard way.

A few months into his foraging hobby, Claypool picked a basket of what he thought were honey mushrooms, fried them in a pan and ate them with ramen noodles. Then his stomach felt weird.

Fast-forward through some frantic Googling and a trip to the emergency room, Claypool learned he’d been right in the first place — the mushrooms weren’t poisonous. Doctors labeled his symptoms as a panic attack and sent him home.