Letters: Why rescued Mount Shasta climbers put too much faith in AI chatbot to plan trip

Mount Shasta, seen from Girard Ridge at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in 2023. A group of climbers who used AI to plan their ascent of the mountain had to be rescued. Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle Three novice climbers told U.S. Forest Service rescue rangers that they'd relied too much on AI chatbots to help them plan the logistics of their trip. Christian Jordan/ U.S. Forest Service Regarding 'Climbers rescued from Mount Shasta after relying on AI chatbot to plan trip' (Outdoors, SFChronicle.com, Sept. 2), I'm not surprised. When I ask Microsoft's chatbot, Copilot, what settings I should use in Microsoft Edge to maximize my privacy, it often tells me to select items that do not exist. Artificial intelligence chatbots are simply providing a string of words that are likely based on what lots of others have written about the topic. This includes many out-of-date and incorrect things. My six decades of software engineering experience have taught me that it's nearly impossible to prove that a deterministic app is always correct. AI chatbots are not deterministic. They have a mind of their own, like us humans. Nobody knows exactly how they arrive at their answers, so there's no way to know if it's right or wrong. Advertisement Article continues below this ad We should put as much faith in an AI chatbot's answers as we would in the answers of a random stranger on the street. They might provide some ideas for us to think about, but we still need to think for ourselves. Robert Plantz, Santa Rosa What to vote for I went to my local gas station. As always, I was aghast at the exorbitant cost of fuel. It took more than $50 to fill my tank, and it was not on empty. While I am fortunate to have the resources to pay, I am worried about Americans for whom the rising cost of gasoline and food creates real hardship; each day they must make difficult decisions about what they can afford. Advertisement Article continues below this ad This is why affordability is the most important issue in the November elections. Every day the media spotlights some ridiculous, often incoherent and unexplainable thing President Donald Trump does or says. However, those ephemeral matters should not distract us. I hope people will translate their outrage and hardship about affordability into voting. The only viable pathway to change is voting out Republicans who have stood idly by their president, whose war of choice and tariffs are responsible for this painful and unacceptable situation. For that reason, almost every day, I donate to Democrat candidates in various states, especially in Texas, where I lived from 1978 to 2024, many of those years under Republican rule. Richard Cherwitz, Camas Wash. Launch data centers If you like using artificial intelligence but don't like how much land, water and electricity are used by data centers, here is a possible solution: Put them in outer space, just like we do with satellites. Advertisement Article continues below this ad About Opinion Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership. Read more about our transparency and ethics policies This avoids the need for land, water for cooling and ground-based energy. Electricity can be supplied by solar panels that receive more intense sunlight that doesn't pass through the atmosphere. Synchronous orbits can keep the panels aligned to sunlight most of the time. With some technical innovation, what was a controversial eyesore becomes a pinpoint of light in the sky, and we can still have AI. Richard Bailey, Novato