As hunters increasingly rely on technology, relying on artificial intelligence to control hunting season dates and regulations is a terrible idea, say wildlife agency officials and a veteran Wyoming hunter.
So far this fall, Idaho game agents have issued a number of citations to hunters who were apparently fooled by AI into thinking they were following the law but were not, Idaho Fish and Game spokesman Roger Phillips told Cowboy State Daily.
That includes some duck hunters who shot ducks on the wrong day because the AI told them hunting season was open when it actually wasn’t, he said.
Trust the regulations, not AI
While there have only been a few cases so far of hunters being fooled by AI, Idaho Fish and Game hopes to get ahead of the problem early, Phillips said.
“It’s one of those things, when it starts bubbling up, we want to alert people to what’s going on,” he said.
The inaccuracy of AI-generated information is also a concern for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, spokeswoman Amanda Fry told Cowboy State Daily.
“We are seeing inaccuracies in some AI-generated overviews of our regulations. It is an important reminder to refer directly to our website for accurate information about our laws and regulations,” she stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.
“Hunters and anglers can also call or stop by one of our offices, and we are happy to provide accurate resources and information to help them be successful. We also offer newsletters, news updates and other information that individuals can sign up for to stay up to date with the latest news from our agency,” she added.
The approved regulations are available on the Gaming and fishing website.
Scott Weber of Cody, who has hunted in Wyoming and numerous other states for decades, told Cowboy State Daily he wouldn’t trust AI to keep him from violating the law.
Official regulations, published annually by state agencies like Wyoming Game and Fish, are the only solution, he said.
Relying on an AI-driven internet search “is a nonsense when it comes to whether you’re right or not,” he said.
How did it happen?
As for how AI misled hunters, Phillips said it’s apparently a matter of search engines picking up key terms, like “opening day in waterfowl hunting area 4,” but out of context.
“Some of our employees have looked deeply into how this could happen?” he said.
In the case of the duck hunting regulations, staff discovered that a search engine was pulling up suggested hunting season dates that had been proposed at some point during committee meetings.
However, different dates were agreed for the published version of the hunting regulations, he said.
So duck hunters were tricked by AI into thinking the proposed dates were actually the final season dates, he said.
In another case, Fish and Game staff discovered that AI had added inaccurate fishing rules from another state to a summary of rules for an Idaho river “with a similar name,” he said.
Every detail counts
Weber said he has also noticed errors in Internet searches. For example, one search returned the wrong result for the year wolf hunting was legalized in Wyoming.
Hunters should be cautious about relying on AI-generated information for details related to hunting, such as randomly generated sunrise and sunset time graphs for determining legal shooting hours.
“A lot of hunters get into big trouble and get big fines because they don’t look at the right sun tables (sunrise-sunset charts), he said.
Hunters can’t use a lack of knowledge or reliance on bad information as an excuse to avoid tickets and fines, he said.
“Here’s the thing, and game wardens will tell you this: You as the hunter are responsible for knowing all the rules,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
