This cracks me up. As a journalist, I’m a skeptic of AI language modeling programs. I think they create boring, uncreative prose, and they make too many boneheaded mistakes. Well. This news shows exactly why AI can’t be trusted for important information, such as hunting regulations.
A recent report from Cowboy State Daily details an instance in which waterfowlers in Idaho were cited for killing birds out of season because they relied on incorrect regulations generated by Google-AI, the AI-generated overview that comes up when you search for something on Google.
Idaho Fish & Game (IDFG) spokesperson Roger Phillips says that his agency investigated how AI provided such faulty information. In this case, AI seemed to have pulled the dates from the proposed 2025-2026 season regulations, which differ from the official, published regulations. In a different incident, IDFG found that AI provided the fishing regulations for an out-of-state river with a similar name to the one within Idaho.
Apparently, other wildlife agencies have noticed similar discrepancies, too, including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Beyond season dates, of particular importance to waterfowlers are sunrise-sunset tables; even minor inaccuracies to shooting times in AI summaries could lead to serious citations.
Jokes about AI aside, this is a good reminder to go to the one and only source for accurate hunting regulations, from season dates to bag limits to shoot times: the published booklet that your state issues each year.