---
title: "AI pest-control advice leads farmer to destroy 25 acres of crops"
url: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/ai-pest-control-advice-leads-farmer-to-destroy-25-acres-of-crops-a19ae2
source_name: "Tom's Hardware"
source_url: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chinese-farmer-kills-25-acres-of-crops-after-following-ai-generated-weed-and-pest-control-advice-farmer-trusted-pesticide-recipe-after-months-of-successful-advice
published: 2026-08-10T10:00:00.000Z
topics: ["security"]
publisher: "Parallel Quant"
---

# AI pest-control advice leads farmer to destroy 25 acres of crops

*2026-08-10 · Source: [Tom's Hardware](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chinese-farmer-kills-25-acres-of-crops-after-following-ai-generated-weed-and-pest-control-advice-farmer-trusted-pesticide-recipe-after-months-of-successful-advice)*

A 67-year-old farmer in China followed an AI app's pesticide recommendation, which killed his entire 25-acre sesame crop. He had come to trust the app after months of it giving him advice that worked.

**Why it matters:** The incident is a concrete example of automation bias, where trust built from routine correct answers gets extended to a high-stakes decision the system got wrong. It's a real-world data point on the risks of AI advisory tools spreading into agriculture and other domains with physical and financial consequences for mistakes.

**Topics:** security

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Read the original: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/chinese-farmer-kills-25-acres-of-crops-after-following-ai-generated-weed-and-pest-control-advice-farmer-trusted-pesticide-recipe-after-months-of-successful-advice
Canonical: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/ai-pest-control-advice-leads-farmer-to-destroy-25-acres-of-crops-a19ae2
Published by Parallel Quant — https://www.parallelquant.com