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Incident 1654: AI Chatbot Reportedly Recommended Herbicide Treatment Linked to Loss of About 25 Acres of Sesame in China

Description: A 67-year-old farmer in Chuzhou, Anhui, reportedly used an AI-generated weed-and-pest-control plan to spray about 150 mu (25 acres) of sesame by drone. By the next day, the crop had largely withered. Agricultural technicians said the recommended mixture included fomesafen, a herbicide unsuitable for blanket application to sesame. The specific AI product and model have not been publicly confirmed.

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Alleged: Chatbot developers and Large language model developers developed an AI system deployed by Wu (Chuzhou farmer) and Chatbot users, which harmed Wu (Chuzhou farmer) , Chatbot users , Farmers , Farmers in China and Epistemic integrity.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Chatbots , Large language models and AI-assisted agricultural decision-making

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1654
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2026-07-10
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceFarmers' misplaced trust in AI led to the destruction of hundreds of acres of sesame.A 67-year-old farmer mistakenly trusted an AI-recommended herbicide, causing 150 acres of sesame seedlings to wither overnight.Chinese farmer trusted AI advice successfuly for a year, then one wrong suggestion destroyed his 25-acre crop in just 24 hours
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Farmers' misplaced trust in AI led to the destruction of hundreds of acres of sesame.

Farmers' misplaced trust in AI led to the destruction of hundreds of acres of sesame.

toutiao.com

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A 67-year-old farmer mistakenly trusted an AI-recommended herbicide, causing 150 acres of sesame seedlings to wither overnight.

A 67-year-old farmer mistakenly trusted an AI-recommended herbicide, causing 150 acres of sesame seedlings to wither overnight.

ithome.com

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Chinese farmer trusted AI advice successfuly for a year, then one wrong suggestion destroyed his 25-acre crop in just 24 hours

Chinese farmer trusted AI advice successfuly for a year, then one wrong suggestion destroyed his 25-acre crop in just 24 hours

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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Farmers' misplaced trust in AI led to the destruction of hundreds of acres of sesame.
toutiao.com · 2026
AI Translated

Farmer's Misguided Trust in AI Leads to Devastating Losses of 150 Mu of Sesame Seeds Multiple Parties Respond

A farmer in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, surnamed Wu, sought help from Litchi News. He explained that he had sprayed pesticides based …

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A 67-year-old farmer mistakenly trusted an AI-recommended herbicide, causing 150 acres of sesame seedlings to wither overnight.
ithome.com · 2026
AI Translated

IT Home August 9th news: According to Litchi News, Mr. Wu, a 67-year-old farmer in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, gradually went from being skeptical to completely reliant on AI software after using it for over a year, consulting the AI for every…

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Chinese farmer trusted AI advice successfuly for a year, then one wrong suggestion destroyed his 25-acre crop in just 24 hours
economictimes.indiatimes.com · 2026

A 67-year-old farmer in Chuzhou, China, lost his entire sesame crop after following weed and pest-control advice generated by an AI app. According to Taiwanese outfit CTWANT, the farmer, Wu, had been using the technology for about a year an…

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A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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