--- title: "Teenage AI Meat Proxy Stranded on “Widowmaker” Mountain After Following AI Instructions" description: "Most recently, a 16-year-old boy had to be rescued from the base of a massive and steep rock formation after following AI instructions." date: "2026-10-06" modified: "2026-10-06" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/teenage-stranded-mountain-ai-instructions" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Teenage AI Meat Proxy Stranded on “Widowmaker” Mountain After Following AI Instructions ![A photo of a mountain rescue in BC.]() *North Shore Rescue* Hikers keep getting stranded after consulting AI chatbots for potentially life-saving — or life-threatening — advice. Just last month, three outdoor enthusiasts [had to be rescued]() by Forest Service rangers in California’s Cascade Range after Google's AI advised them to "bring far less food and water than their group required," turning their planned eight-hour ascent into a "multi day ordeal." Yet despite officials pleading with the public not to take the advice of hallucinating large language models, their warnings keep falling on deaf ears. Most recently, a 16-year-old boy had to be rescued from the base of a massive and steep rock formation, ironically named the "Widowmaker," on British Columbia's Crown Mountain. As [*CTV News* reports](), the teenager took a gondola up to an altitude of over 4,000 feet to the top of Grouse Mountain — only for Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot to lead him off the trail route on his way back down. The boy was in serious danger, but fortunately had at least one bright idea during his adventure: calling in for help after getting stuck. "A fall would have resulted in significant injury or potentially death," North Shore Rescue search manager Paul Markey told *CTV News*. Two rescuers had to lower themselves down since the helicopter was unable to get any closer to the Widowmaker's steep vertical wall. "When on the ground, the crew established an anchor, and one member was belayed to the subject," a North Shore Rescue task debrief reads. "There, the member established additional protection and was able to move the subject to a suitable extraction point." Markey took the opportunity to once again implore the public not to trust AI chatbots like Claude to provide this type of information. "Claude has never been in that specific area, has never been on that route, and has never been in the outdoors — do your own research and gain your own knowledge of the area and supplement it with training and navigation," he told *CTV News*. **More on AI:** *[Hikers Rescued After Using Google AI to Plan Disastrous Trip]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()