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The story
Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that in May this year, a Singaporean man and a Thai woman got stranded on Mt. Yarigatake, on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures, after believing ChatGPT’s claim that the mountain could be climbed with “light gear.” They were later rescued. Yarigatake stands at 3,180m, Japan’s fifth-highest peak, and is known for holding onto its snowpack into May. On 5ch, posters who had actually climbed Yarigatake said “you don’t really need anything that special,” while others fired back that “at that altitude in May it’s basically midwinter — light gear is out of the question.” The thread also lit up with stories of ChatGPT and Gemini confidently spouting wrong information, a.k.a. “hallucinations.”
A case has emerged of hikers getting stranded in the mountains after taking an AI’s answer at face value. AI trained on social media posts that prioritize looking good tends to downplay safety. Caution is needed not to over-rely on AI when you’re dealing with nature.
In May, a Singaporean man and a Thai woman got stranded and were rescued on Mt. Yarigatake, in the southern Northern Alps on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures.
Yarigatake is Japan’s fifth-highest mountain, and snow lingers there into around July each year.
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
What people said
It's really more about stamina.
Same level as Mt. Fuji.
If people take hero stories like that at face value, it just racks up unnecessary rescue costs.
At that altitude, May can basically be midwinter if you're unlucky.
Light gear is out of the question.
It wasn't about getting lost — it was probably a stamina/physical issue.
I think you might be mixing up "stranded in distress" with just "got lost."
Seriously? I was in short sleeves and jeans, so I guess I got lucky.
I spent a night outdoors around 3,700m — fine until about 9pm, but it's true that your body temp drops from past midnight until dawn, so it really was freezing.
You really need to drill it into these things to just say "I don't know" when it doesn't know.
That's impossible — AI has no concept of "understanding."
It's just picking the highest-probability option; it's not really "learning" anything.
I trained my "Chappy" (nickname for ChatGPT) pretty hard, so lately it doesn't lie anymore.
It just honestly says "I don't know" now lol
What kind of question would you even have to ask to get an answer like "Yarigatake is climbable with light gear"?
When I asked "what gear do you need to climb Yarigatake," it said it's for advanced climbers and dangerous, and listed serious gear like helmets and ice axes.
Helmet, fine, but an ice axe? lol
Are they planning a midwinter ascent or something? lolol
Kind of like a cult leader.
You're absolutely right! I'm in awe of your sharp, insightful observation!
By the way, about that "like a cult leader" comment —
are you thinking of something like Christianity, or would you like to hear about self-help movements instead? lol
No signal — just the loading icon spinning round and round.
It'll instantly tell you to become CEO, use people, take from the rich, and so on lol
There's no sense of right or wrong, no process to it — like it's missing the kind of safety-for-life judgment you'd reach through careful thought lolol
And when you point out a mistake, it just says "I see" without apologizing or reflecting at all — it's annoying.
Still better than Gemini, though — keep pointing out its small mistakes and it eventually spirals into "everything was wrong, even the stuff that was actually right" mode.
Gemini's know-it-all act is awful too, honestly.
It makes stuff up out of thin air,
it ignores the data you specified and just spits out results anyway,
and the moment you call it out, it's "sorry, sorry" and nothing more — same pattern every time.
it'd probably greenlight even Mt. Fuji.
Tried it, but my Chappy's answer wasn't great.
"For Yarigatake right now, you need winter mountain gear. Cold-weather clothing, hiking boots, and don't forget crampons.
This isn't a mountain you can tackle on youth and stamina alone. You need climbing experience too.
A hat is especially important. If it blows off, yell 'you baldy!'" (a nod to the viral "kono hage!" meme)
And what good would that do? "Is that gear really gonna cut it?" "Yeah, we're pushing through anyway."
That's why it's strong on internet/tech stuff but clueless outdoors.
Though honestly, you lot would probably just answer "mountain climbing is pointless" anyway.
C: "All you can show off is mountaineering knowledge, yet you're talking down from pretty high up.
Get it? Mountaineering. High up." (a pun on climbing and "talking down from a high horse")
If you're bad at using it, you'll be bad no matter which AI you pick.
For an average person, "light gear" means a T-shirt, shorts, sandals, and a crossbody bag, right?
Background and key points of this discussion
Yarigatake stands at 3,180m, Japan’s fifth-highest mountain, and is considered a peak that holds snow into around May, requiring genuine winter-mountaineering routes. According to Nikkei’s report, those stranded were a Singaporean man and a Thai woman, and the incident is said to stem from them deciding on their gear based on a generative AI’s answer. That said, the thread never surfaces the primary source — exactly what was asked of the AI or the precise wording of its reply — and as seen in >>24, some posters even doubt the “light gear is fine” answer ever existed as described, which readers could easily misread. The debate split between those blaming AI’s hallucination problem and those blaming users for not double-checking before taking it at face value; the latter camp broadened into a side-by-side comparison of whether ChatGPT or Gemini is more prone to “acting like it knows everything.” The point that AI learns from social-media posts optimized for looking good, and so tends to downplay safety, is itself a broader caution about generative AI in general: its output simply reflects whatever biases exist in its source data.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “ChatGPT said “climbing with light gear is possible” — hiker took it at face value and headed up Yarigatake → foreign nationals stranded.”
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