AFTER following an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated plan to remove weeds and pests, a horrified farmer in China’s Anhui province watched all his sesame seedlings on his 10-hectare farm wither and die, reported China Press.
The 67-year-old named Wu learnt about the AI software in 2025 and was initially sceptical about the technology.
However, he became increasingly reliant on AI and turned to it for daily advice, including on agricultural production.
On July 10, Wu sought advice on dealing with weeds and pests on his sesame farm.
It generated a plan that involved using drones to spray herbicides and even recommended which herbicides to use.
He followed the plan to the letter but realised something was amiss the next day when his sesame seedlings began to wither and die, resulting in an estimated loss of 150,000 yuan (RM90,912).
Agriculture technicians who later inspected the fields found that the problem was caused by the use of fomesafen, a herbicide unsuitable for sesame fields that could kill an entire crop.
When contacted, a customer service representative from the AI software company said its AI did not have an independent knowledge base and relied on publicly available information on the Internet.
The representative said the company would further investigate the sources from which the information was obtained.
> Despite being well-to-do, Chinese rock musician Wang Feng is adamant about teaching his children to be frugal, often stopping them from splurging on luxury goods, reported Sin Chew Daily.
During a recent interview, Wang recounted an incident involving his 14-year-old daughter, who had her eye on a luxury branded clothing item.
She messaged Wang to ask if she could buy it.
Rather than agreeing simply because he could afford it, he refused, saying: “It’s not about the money. It’s that at your age, you shouldn’t be buying clothes at this price from these brands.”
Wang gave her the option of either spending the same amount of money on more affordable brands or returning everything else she had bought to afford the single item.
Wang explained that he did not want his children to develop unrestrained spending habits simply because they had access to credit cards.
He believes they must develop a healthy understanding of money rather than pursue expensive brands at a young age.
During the interview, Wang said his own spending habits were practical, revealing that 80% of the clothes he owned were bought from the online shopping platform Taobao.
When the televised interview was released, it sparked an online discussion in China, with many netizens praising Wang’s parenting approach.
Others expressed surprise that Wang, who appears on stage in leather jackets and performs rock music, is a practical person in private.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
