Foragers, hikers, and nature enthusiasts know the thrill of spotting a cluster of mushrooms peeking through forest leaf litter. But that excitement quickly fades when uncertainty sets in: Is this edible, or could it be deadly? Every year, accidental mushroom poisoning sends thousands to hospitals worldwide, often due to misidentification of toxic varieties that mimic harmless ones. This is where Mushroom Check changes the game — a cutting-edge AI tool that turns your phone into a portable mycology expert, letting you identify mushrooms in seconds and explore nature without fear.

When I moved to Oslo, my PhD adviser told me that if I was interested in foraging mushrooms I should take someone with me. He said since I lived in Japan he was concerned because there has been multiple cases of Japanese and Chinese foraging in Norway and becoming very ill because some of the mushrooms that are safe to eat in those regions look identical to poisonous mushrooms in Scandinavia.

This is a problem with incredibly high stakes in China.

There is a very strong culinary tradition of foraging and eating wild mushrooms, prized for their nutritional and medicinal value. But this comes at a huge cost: accidental poisoning is a major, recurring public health issue every year.

The reason is exactly as you've identified: the most lethal toxic mushrooms are often look-alikes for common edible ones. The margin for error isn't small; it's zero.

This makes me simultaneously excited and terrified of an AI tool for this. The 'false positive' (labeling a toxic mushroom as edible) is not an inconvenience, it's a potential fatality. How has the AI been trained to handle—and refuse to identify—species that are notoriously ambiguous?

This is really awesome. I love camping and often forage for food in the wild, mostly mushrooms. But we all know mushrooms aren't just one simple type—if you're not careful, they can send you off to share a meal with Jesus!

Are you serious?