The Seek app suggests species despite being removed from iNaturalist’s Computer Vision model

[martinax]

Issue: The species Ramaria formosa is being incorrectly suggested by the Seek app, despite being removed from iNaturalist’s Computer Vision model.

Platform: Android.

App version number: 2.16.2 (358)

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages :
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/233734094
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/234037404
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/236887730

Description of problem: Ramaria formosa (Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus) is a European species and does not occur in North America. Over 2-3 years, I manually corrected 3000-4000 incorrect research-grade identifications of this species in North America, many of which were initially suggested by iNaturalist’s Computer Vision model. The number of research-grade observations has since dropped so low that Ramaria formosa is no longer part of the model. The bottom right corner of the taxon page states: “The current Computer Vision Model does not know about this taxon.” Despite this, the Seek app continues to suggest this species for new observations.

Screenshots of what you are seeing:

Steps to Reproduce:
Step 1: Open this observation (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/236887730) in a web browser.
Step 2: Open the Seek app on a mobile device.
Step 3: Tap the camera button and use it to identify the coral fungus in the observation from Step 1.

Expected Result: The Seek app should not suggest Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus, as it has been removed from iNaturalist’s Computer Vision model.

Actual Result: The Seek app incorrectly suggests Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus despite its removal from the model.

[thebeachcomber]

@martinax

The Seek app incorrectly suggests Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus despite its removal from the model.

The Seek app does not use the same CV model as iNaturalist itself; it uses an older model

[martinax]

I disagree that this is a solution. It’s a question of credibility that a species is still being suggested probably over a year after it’s been removed from the main model. Since then I’ve been flooded with hundreds of obviously incorrect identifications of this species alone. I’d much rather spend time helping users with their IDs rather than constantly correcting identifications of an outdated image recognition system.

[cooperj]

@martinax

Steps to Reproduce:
Step 1: Open this observation (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/236887730) in a web browser.
Step 2: Open the Seek app on a mobile device.
Step 3: Tap the camera button and use it to identify the coral fungus in the observation from Step 1.

Expected Result: The Seek app should not suggest Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus, as it has been removed from iNaturalist’s Computer Vision model.

Actual Result: The Seek app incorrectly suggests Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus despite its removal from the model.

This a ‘feature request’ for the Seek CV model to be updated more regularly, and an entry should be added to that category. It is not a technical bug. See the intro to this bug category.