A shortcut recommended by ChatGPT left two hikers stuck on a mountain face in Poland this month, and they needed a helicopter to get back down. It’s the latest case of an AI chatbot steering travelers toward routes it has no real way to evaluate.
ChatGPT’s shortcut led straight to a dead end
According to Cybernews, the two Lithuanian hikers were trying to reach the Five Lakes Valley in the Tatra Mountains and asked ChatGPT to find them a faster way there. The chatbot’s answer took them up toward Niebieska Turnia and onto the Świnicka Ławka traverse, a section that called for climbing experience neither of them had.
Once they got there, they could neither go forward nor back on their own and had to contact Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue (TOPR), a Polish nonprofit rescue organization, on July 4. TOPR confirmed that the pair made it out safely by helicopter.
A pattern of bad AI travel advice
This is far from a one-off incident. A couple in British Columbia ran into similar trouble last year, when an AI-planned route left them stranded on Unnecessary Mountain without the gear or forecast awareness the terrain demanded, forcing a local rescue crew to step in. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s AI incident tracker has also logged chatbots inventing entire destinations, such as a “Sacred Canyon of Humantay” in Peru that simply doesn’t exist.
The problem isn’t limited to hiking or ChatGPT. A report from earlier this year found that TripAdvisor’s AI-written review summaries downplayed serious safety complaints at hotels, describing properties as spotless despite guest reports of hygiene failures and harassment. In either case, the AI produced a clean, confident answer for a situation that was never clean or simple to begin with, whether it be a hotel’s condition or treacherous terrain.
If you’re letting ChatGPT or a similar tool help plan a hike or a trip, these incidents suggest you shouldn’t blindly trust what it says. Do your own research and gather information from trusted sources before heading out.
