Date: 9/16/26 2:30 pm From: Wendy VanDeWalle <wtvandewalle...> Subject: Re: [ia-bird] Not a sighting
Given this discussion, I wanted to share my husband’s recent experience
with AI as it pertains to science and research. He is working on his latest
book and was experimenting with Google AI to look up references. (He is not
using it to write the book).
He has double checked AI’s answers and have found some to be wrong. He
“called” AI on it and I’m fascinated at the response. My husband’s comments
are in green and AI’s are in red. Anyway the moral of the story is that you
can’t trust AI and AI has no morals.
Wow.
I find it quite difficult to trust it for any scientific information now.
Wendy VanDeWalle
On Wed, Sep 16, 2026 at 3:01 PM Paul Hertzel <phertzel...> wrote:
> Steve is right - the IOU Records Committee has almost no choice except to
> consider the nutcrackers different birds, different records. It may be fun
> to speculate about this, but scientifically, we have to keep an open mind
> to the possibilities. So we will undoubtedly treat them as different
> records, and if they are all accepted, we will let the Field Report Editors
> explain their respective presences in the journal.
> Paul Hertzel, Secretary
> IOU Bird Records Committee
> Mason CIty, IA
>
>
> On 9/16/2026 12:34 PM, 'Dinsmore, Stephen J [NREM]' via IA-BIRD wrote:
>
> I have a hard time imagining that this isn’t a different Clark’s
> Nutcracker from the one seen in Ames in August. I think most birders vastly
> underestimate the number of unusual birds out there that are never
> detected, while at the same time overestimating our ability to detect an
> individual bird. Consider an example – Smith’s Longspur. Virtually all
> individuals of this species are thought to pass through Iowa in spring and
> fall and the world population is believed to number no more than 75,000
> individuals. What fraction of that population is seen each year in Iowa?
> Maybe 1-2% in most years, not a high proportion. At its simplest this is a
> probability issue. But short of marking the bird in a unique way, or noting
> some plumage characteristic that is unique, we’ll never really know the
> truth. The IOU Records Committee evaluates all reports of rare birds in
> Iowa and is probably in the best position to determine the uniqueness of
> individual records of the same species.
>
>
>
> I also fail to see the relevance or utility of using AI to address a
> question it is (a) not at all equipped to answer, and (b) can never be
> answered with certainty without the uniqueness I noted earlier. Another in
> a growing list of examples where AI is 100% wrong…
>
>
>
> Steve
>
> **********
>
> Stephen J. Dinsmore
>
> Professor and Chair
>
> Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management
>
> Director, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
>
> Iowa State University
>
> 209 Science II
>
> Ames, IA 50011
>
> Phone: 515-294-1348
>
> E-mail: <cootjr...>
>
> Web: https://faculty.sites.iastate.edu/cootjr/ >
>
>
> *From:* <ia-bird...> <ia-bird...>
> <ia-bird...> *On Behalf Of *Clayton Will
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 15, 2026 10:56 PM
> *To:* IA-BIRD <ia-bird...> <ia-bird...>
> *Subject:* [ia-bird] Not a sighting
>
>
>
> I did an AI search on the odds of a Clark's Nutcracker seen in Ames Iowa
> and Mason City Iowa a few weeks apart being the same bird. The answer was
> 100% the same bird because of the rarity of this bird in Iowa. Also that
> IOU would accept it was the same bird unless there were signficant physical
> differences.
>
>
>
> Clayton Will
>
> Madrid
>
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