The AI confused?

After having made observations in the US Midwest, and resuming observations in Israel, the AI seems to have been populating the list of suggestions with the Midwest’s flora instead of the Middle Eastern, for example a viburnum instead of an Asteracea. The AI got confused? It’s not annoying, but I think I should let someone know.

Can you please provide a screenshot of what you’re seeing? Without specific details it’s tough to diagnose an issue. Here are instructions for how to take a screenshot on several types of devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org

Just to be clear the AI does not really take geography into account. It is heavily based on perceived visual similarity. It will note (at least on the website version, you dont note what tool you are using) if something it suggests is recorded nearby, but it will not exclude suggestions it thinks are visually similar based on them not being seen nearby.

The AI does have a bias (which may be an improperly loaded term) towards species from areas with large numbers of records and observers, as it requires a minimum of 100 records for a species to be included in the training. Many Middle Eastern species may not have reached this threshold so are not in the set of species the AI will search for matches or make recommendations on.

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No confusion, that’s how it works.

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Here is a test upload (not finalized) of a Pistacia terebinthus ssp. palaestina. This time no viburnum, though it may resemble it, however plenty of California species, and one Siberian. Only one species observable in Israel, (the bottom of the list). I hope it sheds some light on the AI’s thinking :cowboy_hat_face:

Thanks, I think the issue here is as @cmcheatle and @fffffffff described, so it’s not a bug. It’s unlikely many plants from the Middle East are in the AI’s model, so it can’t list them as suggestions. It’s going purely on which taxa in the model are the most visually similar.

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Got it. Though before my US observations, the AI quickly figured out terebinth suggestions, since there are Reasearch Grade terebinths, mine included, within 1 mile.

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Yeah, we’re still working on getting more Middle Eastern plants towards the AI’s threshold. There are also many species here that closely resemble species in the States – or which are found in both places.

At least it’s pretty reliable for olive trees, you can hardly walk ten meters here without seeing one :P

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sometimes it feels like I know how this AI thinks :parrot: