The National Weather Service’s weekend wind forecast for rural Idaho looked normal. Some mild gusts and a caption reminding folks to “hold onto your hats.” And then some eagle-eyed observers took a look at the towns on the map and wondered just what the hell is going on here.
Ohio residents had never heard of towns by the names of “Orangeotild” and “Whata Bod,” likely because they don’t exist. They were the wild hallucinations of AI.
According to The Washington Post, the Weather Service confirmed the graphic was created using generative AI, which had hallucinated entire communities and gave them appropriately silly names. The image was deleted and corrected.
This particular incident is part of a broader experiment at the NWS, which has been testing AI tools for everything from forecasting models to visual design. Officials insist AI isn’t commonly used for public-facing content.
An AI-Generated NWS Map Invented Fake Towns in Idaho
Former longtime NWS employee John Sokich told the Post that experimental products are typically labeled as such. Over the past year, hundreds of Weather Service employees have left, either laid off or left because they didn’t want to deal with this kind of headache.
When robots take human jobs, everything suffers. The work, the data, and the trust citizens build with institutions. Weather forecasts aren’t content that can or should be generated with a few clicks. These are public safety tools. This forecast with silly fake town names didn’t pose much of a risk, but if NAI can make a mistake like this for a small thing, it can just as easily make a huge, catastrophic mistake that can impact real human lives.
Inventing fictional towns doesn’t inspire confidence. Details matter, especially among professionals. If you can’t get the details right, you’re not a professional. And you’re not to be trusted or taken seriously.
Ultimately, the implementation of the technology might be more dangerous than the technology itself. That’s why whenever you hear that AI is involved in anything, you have to ask deep, meaningful questions about whether the people implementing it have your best interests at heart. I think with the way things are going of late, that answer is a quick and easy no.
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