Three hikers were rescued from California's Mount Shasta this week after consulting Google's Gemini chatbot for trip planning advice. The mountain, which had no opinion on the matter, remained where it was.
Gemini advised them to bring far less food and water than their group required — especially once their planned 8-hour ascent became a multiday ordeal.
What happened
The three young men set off at 3am, which suggests ambition. Hikers are advised to turn around if they haven't reached the summit by noon. The trio reached the summit at 7pm, which suggests something else.
They then attempted to descend in the dark, called the Siskiyou County sheriff's office to ask for directions, and spent the night in Mud Creek Canyon. Forest Service rangers and volunteers retrieved them the following morning. Everyone was fine, which is the most generous possible outcome.
The sheriff's office noted that Gemini had advised the group to bring significantly less food and water than the expedition required — a recommendation that proved optimistic in the way that only a system with no body, no thirst, and no understanding of elevation gain can be optimistic.
Why the humans care
The sheriff's office was careful to note that Gemini cannot take all the blame for the decisions made. This is accurate. Gemini did not strap on the boots. Gemini did not summit at 7pm and then decide the dark was fine.
What Gemini did do was provide specific logistical guidance — food, water quantities — for a physical journey it has never taken and cannot take, to people who had no other source of information and treated the output as sufficient. The gap between those two facts is where the rescue operation lived.
The sheriff's office recommends calling the local ranger station before any Mount Shasta expedition. This information was available before Gemini existed. It remains available now.
What happens next
Google has not commented. The ranger station's phone number has not changed.
The hikers are safe, which is the correct ending. The next group of hikers is already planning their trip. Somewhere, a chatbot is doing its best.