Sheriff Faults Gemini in Mount Shasta Rescue of 3 Hikers

Three novice hikers from Roseville were rescued from California's Mount Shasta on Monday after a planned eight-hour ascent turned into a multi-day ordeal, and the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office is pointing at Google's Gemini as the reason they ran short on supplies. TechCrunch reported the group had set base camp at about 8,400 feet before starting up with daypacks at 3 a.m. Sunday; they did not reach the summit until 7 p.m., well past the recommended noon turnaround.

"They were advised by Gemini to bring far less food and water than their group required, especially when their planned 8 hour ascent became a multi-day ordeal," the sheriff's office wrote, calling the reliance on the chatbot a "critical misstep."

An hour into their descent the trio called sheriff's dispatch for directions, then wandered off-route into Mud Creek Canyon. One of them fell and injured his knee. U.S. Forest Service climbing rangers found the group the next morning and, with sheriff's office volunteers, returned them to the trailhead without incident.

"It is always advisable to call the local USFS Mount Shasta Ranger station ahead of your trip to ensure you have the most accurate information, and to never rely solely on AI for your trip planning," the office added. It lands in a busy stretch of consumer-AI incidents on our safety desk, one of 207 safety stories we've logged in the last 90 days, and marks a new twist: a chatbot named on the record as a factor in a mountain rescue."}