An AI-Generated NWS Map Invented Fake Towns In Idaho (washingtonpost.com) 42
National Weather Service pulled an AI-generated forecast graphic after it hallucinated fake town names in Idaho. "The blunder -- not the first of its kind to be posted by the NWS in the past year -- comes as the agency experiments with a wide range of AI uses, from advanced forecasting to graphic design," reports the Washington Post. "Experts worry that without properly trained officials, mistakes could erode trust in the agency and the technology." From the report: At first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary about Saturday's wind forecast for Camas Prairie, Idaho. "Hold onto your hats!" said a social media post from the local weather office in Missoula, Montana. "Orangeotild" had a 10 percent chance of high winds, while just south, "Whata Bod" would be spared larger gusts. The problem? Neither of those places exist. Nor do a handful of the other spots marked on the National Weather Service's forecast graphic, riddled with spelling and geographical errors that the agency confirmed were linked to the use of generative AI.
NWS said AI is not commonly used for public-facing content, nor is its use prohibited. The agency said it is exploring ways to employ AI to inform the public and acknowledged mistakes have been made. "Recently, a local office used AI to create a base map to display forecast information, however the map inadvertently displayed illegible city names," said NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei. "The map was quickly corrected and updated social media posts were distributed."
A post with the inaccurate map was deleted Monday, the same day The Washington Post contacted officials with questions about the image. Cei added that "NWS is exploring strategic ways to continue optimizing our service delivery for Americans, including the implementation of AI where it makes sense. NWS will continue to carefully evaluate results in cases where AI is implemented to ensure accuracy and efficiency, and will discontinue use in scenarios where AI is not effective." A Nov. 25 tweet out of the Rapid City, South Dakota, office also had misspelled locations and the Google Gemini logo in its forecast. NWS did not confirm whether the Rapid City image was made with generative AI.
NWS said AI is not commonly used for public-facing content, nor is its use prohibited. The agency said it is exploring ways to employ AI to inform the public and acknowledged mistakes have been made. "Recently, a local office used AI to create a base map to display forecast information, however the map inadvertently displayed illegible city names," said NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei. "The map was quickly corrected and updated social media posts were distributed."
A post with the inaccurate map was deleted Monday, the same day The Washington Post contacted officials with questions about the image. Cei added that "NWS is exploring strategic ways to continue optimizing our service delivery for Americans, including the implementation of AI where it makes sense. NWS will continue to carefully evaluate results in cases where AI is implemented to ensure accuracy and efficiency, and will discontinue use in scenarios where AI is not effective." A Nov. 25 tweet out of the Rapid City, South Dakota, office also had misspelled locations and the Google Gemini logo in its forecast. NWS did not confirm whether the Rapid City image was made with generative AI.
What if those towns exist in another dimension (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe the AI is so smart it's remembering information about towns that existed before out timeline went awry.
So how do we monetise this? (Score:2)
Presumably the towns in other timelines exist for a good reason. Our timeline has missed that reason, so those locations have something that hasn't been exploited... ;)
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Re:What if those towns exist in another dimension (Score:5, Informative)
It's bad OCR. I googled it. Orangeotild is Grangeville for example.
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Re:What if those towns exist in another dimension (Score:5, Funny)
Whereas LLMs, on the other hand, are very good at OCR (Obsessive-Compulsive Remixing).
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It's bad OCR. I googled it. Orangeotild is Grangeville for example.
That makes NO sense at all. Those are in two completely different sections of a rather large state.
Ask Google Maps to navigate from Grangeville Idaho to Camas Prairie Idaho [google.com] (which is the area "Orangeotild" and "Whata Bod" purportedly existed) - they're hundreds of miles apart.
Side note: While looking at maps, I noticed there is a town named "Dickshooter" somewhat near Camas Prairie. I am scared to speculate on how exactly that place got its name... perhaps Larry Craig was involved somehow?
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Presumably AI knew it would be stuck behind a paywall so people couldn't see the map itself and just made it for that reason.
DOGE (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like DOGE has been busy at the NWS.
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They replaced humans with Covfefe
Next up, golden rain for Imma A. Hole (Score:2)
prompt (Score:3)
what was the question used to generate the map with fake towns?
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Re:prompt (Score:5, Insightful)
what was the question used to generate the map with fake towns?
"Given any discussion of this map will be behind a paywall, generate a random picture and put some weather on it."
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Here's the original Twitter post: https://x.com/NWSMissoula/stat... [x.com]
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"Given any discussion of this map will be behind a paywall, or a damn requirement to sign up to twitter followed and accept multiple popupwarning windows that frustrate the user to the point of not giving a fuck anymore, generate a random picture and put some weather on it."
Thanks, I've amended my prompt to include twitter.
Is stale map data an issue at the NWS? (Score:3)
I know ghost towns are a thing and areas may grow from time to time, but how often are maps out of date when it comes to the existence of cites and towns? Certainly any map from 5 years ago (prior to AI slop) is still accurate today as to where and what communities exist in any state, so not seeing why they need to "consult" an AI to generate a new map to begin with.
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They seem to have adjusted and now only show the lon/lat coordinates of certain events, not even attempting to plot them on an actual map.
Foresooth the
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what about copyright check fake data in maps did AI pick up some of that?
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The purpose of fake data in maps is to thwart other companies copying your data into their own products. I would think either the source would not include that junk data to begin with in what they supply a government agency, and if they did, attempting to correct the data would likely run foul of the contract because you're now removing protections the source added to it. In any case, AI isn't going to be a good choice in "cleaning" it and may even add additional errors (fake data present in other map produ
more DOGE nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
Trump and Musk believed they could replace most of the government with AI and this is the result.
Re:more DOGE nonsense (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.nbcnews.com/scienc... [nbcnews.com]
Feeling called out?
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We don't pin everything on Trump, just the specific things that Trump wants us to pin on him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
He was proud of reducing staff at the NWS. This is his result his legacy.
Also I suspect you're part of his legacy too. I blame him for you since he has cut funding for Mental Health research as well as Education. I would call you retarded, but really it's not your fault for being so stupid. I'm blaming that on Trump. Or do you want to own this one yourself?
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NWS ? N/A (Score:2)
I live in a real town in PA and we haven't had any weather for over a week.
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Blurst of Times (Score:2)
AI is like someone heard the old chestnut about the monkeys and typewriters and replaced the monkeys with a Markhov chain and the typewriters with the environment.
Maybe it's a future city (Score:2)
"the Shoshone word for 'no state here'" (Score:4, Funny)
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I heard that it's possible the AI made up towns in Wyoming, but nobody is sure.
"Wyoming"? That sounds like AI made it up...
This was a solved problem (Score:1)
Feedback loop (Score:2)
With the amount of AI generated slop I see the AI scrapers are now basically training on other AI slop, so it is basically a self destructive feedback loop.