{"id":8923,"date":"2026-11-01T12:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/ar\/randonnee-chatbots-ia-secours-montagne-0111\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T03:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T03:23:20","slug":"randonnee-chatbots-ia-secours-montagne-0111","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/randonnee-chatbots-ia-secours-montagne-0111\/","title":{"rendered":"AI chatbots and hiking: rescuers see unprepared hikers in the mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mountain rescue teams in the United States and Canada are now dealing with hikers who planned their outings with an artificial intelligence chatbot<\/a>, several officials in the field say, with some of those trips ending in serious mistakes.<\/p>\n

The starkest case comes from Mount Shasta in Northern California, where three 20-year-olds needed rescue off a rock face after losing their way. They later acknowledged that their poor preparation was partly down to relying on Gemini, Google’s chatbot.<\/p>\n

A descent in the dark<\/h2>\n

The group had too little food and had overrated its own fitness. Instead of turning back in the late afternoon short of the summit, the three kept climbing until 7:30 p.m. and then came down after nightfall. By morning they were lost in difficult terrain, and one of them had injured a knee.<\/p>\n

Nick Meyers, program manager of the Mount Shasta Wilderness Climbing and Avalanche Center, part of the US Forest Service, responded to the call. He gives the three some credit for trying to research the climb beforehand, but his verdict was blunt:<\/p>\n

“I think they kind of switched their brains off.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meyers described other incidents too. One visitor pitched her tent beside a no-camping sign, insisting the AI had told her it was allowed. Another hiker ended up wandering near a trailhead after following a map the AI had generated, one that placed major landmarks on the opposite side of a nearby mountain from where they actually stood.<\/p>\n

In British Columbia, a different rescue required a helicopter to reach a 16-year-old stranded on a ledge of the Widowmaker Arete, on the back side of Crown Mountain. The teenager had planned his route with Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, though he said he had also checked Google Maps and the AllTrails app.<\/p>\n

No link to more accidents yet<\/h2>\n

At Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the share of visitors who say they turn to AI for information went “from zero to 26%” in a single year, according to Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins, who does not expect the trend to slow.<\/p>\n

Meyers stresses that no connection with a rise in accidents has been established so far. His service averages about a dozen rescues a year, and 2026 looks set to be a normal year. In Wyoming, calls for help are actually down: 312 since the start of 2026, compared with 466 for the whole of 2025 and 377 in 2024.<\/p>\n

Jim Moss, a Colorado lawyer specialising in outdoor recreation and a volunteer rescuer, says the problem is not entirely new. Around a decade ago, Instagram and social media were luring novices to dangerous spots, and before that, dependence on Google Maps or mobile coverage led others astray.<\/p>\n

Risk of “cognitive surrender”<\/h2>\n

Chris Flathmann, a professor of human-centered computing at Clemson University in South Carolina, sees risks specific to these tools. AI chatbots<\/a> can “hallucinate”, presenting false information convincingly, and encourage what he calls “cognitive surrender”, in which users stop thinking critically, a habit that is hard to reverse under stress.<\/p>\n

In his view, the assistants readily tell people what they want to hear, with confidence, sometimes drawing on forum threads, outdated videos or even made-up material. Where social media inspires, AI hands out instructions, right or wrong, along with encouragement.<\/p>\n

Specialists advise checking any information against reliable sources: up-to-date maps and websites from public land agencies, trail associations, printed guidebooks, or better still a guide, a forest officer or a park ranger. “If you’re going to places that can kill you, take your preparation seriously,” Meyers said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI chatbots are leaving some hikers underprepared, a US Forest Service rescuer says, citing a night-time ordeal on Mount Shasta and other cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6362,6359,6360,6361],"class_list":["post-8923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-clemson-university","tag-mount-shasta","tag-us-forest-service","tag-grand-teton-national-park"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t