It was with some trepidation that I accepted Chris Williams’ pitch for his story about using ChatGPT to plan a tramping trip. My last foray into AI was to create illustrations for an article about the different types of Te Araroa Trail walkers you might encounter, and it went down like a lead balloon with readers. Won’t be doing that again, I promise. 

The proliferation of AI means we’re all interacting with it in some way, many of us on a near-daily basis: who hasn’t had Google serve up an ‘AI overview’, for example? 

Whether we realise it or not – and whether we like it or not – AI is everywhere, even in the outdoors.

Reader perception was one reason for my hesitancy in accepting the story. Another is the fact that AI is not a friend of publications like Wilderness. For example, unless we allow the content – which we pay contributors for – to be included in Google’s AI overview, Wilderness won’t be referenced or listed in top search results. It’s a bit like telling Netflix it needs to give away its movies and TV shows in order to get more people to subscribe. 

So, did I really want to run a story about how AI can help people plan their tramping trips? 

The answer is in the second paragraph above: readers are already using it in many ways. Demonstrating its flaws and ways to use it effectively is of genuine interest and use to our readers. 

I hope you find that’s the case. We did ask ChatGPT a ‘great question’ or two, and we found it can be a useful, complementary addition to your planning process. But it also has genuine limitations. AI is not yet capable of accurately besting a first-person account of a trip, such as those published in Wilderness or other guidebooks. Nor can it cover all aspects of trip planning. For that, you still need multiple sources – weather reports, maps, published articles or books and DOC. 

Use it, but not in isolation. 

(And just for the record, Chris’s story aside, we do not use AI for story or image creation at Wilderness. All stories, headings and images are created by real people.)