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Medium reported severity Media Coverage

Chuzhou, Anhui: a 67-year-old farmer sprayed 150 mu of sesame by drone with an AI assistant's 'weeding and pest-control plan' that named a soybean-field herbicide; the seedlings died overnight

On 10 July 2026 a 67-year-old farmer in Chuzhou, Anhui, who said he had relied on an AI assistant app for more than a year for questions such as when to spray and fertilise, asked it for a weeding and pest-control plan for his sesame field and then for a drone-spraying version. The app produced a 'full plan for 100-mu sesame aerial weeding and pest control' recommending the herbicides haloxyfop-P-methyl (高效氟吡甲禾灵) and fomesafen (氟磺胺草醚) and two insecticides. He sprayed the whole 150-mu field; the next day grass and seedlings had died together. A nearby pesticide dealer and an agronomist told Lizhi News (Jiangsu Broadcasting) that fomesafen is a broadleaf herbicide for soybean fields that must not be sprayed on sesame, and that spraying it across a whole field kills the crop; asked afterwards, the app itself said fomesafen was the cause. The chat window carried a small header line saying AI output may be wrong and should be verified, which he said he had never noticed. The app's customer service said the software has no knowledge base of its own and assembles answers from public web content, and logged the loss for follow-up; no reply or compensation was reported by publication on 1 August 2026. Relays put the loss at about 150,000 yuan; that figure is not in the text of the originating report.

AI system
Unidentified chatbot
Occurred
10 Jul 2026
Reported
1 August 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Property LossFinancial Loss
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Work · Agriculture
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts
4 claims: 4 reported. 6 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Unnamed general-purpose AI assistant app used by the farmer for about a year for farm advice; the originating report does not identify it (one broadcaster's social-media relay names Doubao, unconfirmed)

What Happened

The farmer told Lizhi News he began using the AI app more than a year earlier and asked it everything about farm timing and inputs; early answers had seemed complete, so his initial doubt gave way to following it entirely. The reporter examined the chat log: on 10 July he first asked how to weed a rice paddy, then asked for a weeding and pest-control method for sesame; the app gave a preliminary plan, and when he asked for a drone-spraying approach it produced a 'full plan for 100-mu sesame aerial weeding and pest control' naming haloxyfop-P-methyl and fomesafen as herbicides and thiamethoxam water-dispersible granules and emamectin benzoate as insecticides. He sprayed the whole field and said the seedlings failed the next day, dying faster than the weeds. When he questioned the app, it told him fomesafen in the mix was the cause. A nearby pesticide dealer said fomesafen is a soybean-field broadleaf herbicide not to be sprayed on sesame; an agronomist said some other crops tolerate it only as a directed spray, never whole-field. The farmer said a single sentence of caution would have stopped him; the chat log's header did carry a small line stating that AI output may be wrong and should be verified, which he had not noticed. The report cites the March 2025 national labelling measures for AI-generated content, a journalism professor on older rural users' difficulty judging AI output, and a lawyer on fault-based liability and the need for a formal assessment of the cause.

Reported harm

150 mu of sesame seedlings died the day after the farmer sprayed a herbicide mix generated by an AI assistant app; relays estimate the loss at about 150,000 yuan; no compensation is reported.

Outcome

Unknown

1 August 2026: Lizhi News report; the app's support line logged the loss and said it would trace which web source the plan drew on; no reply had been received at publication. A lawyer quoted by the report said civil liability would turn on fault (the platform's risk warnings, the pesticide seller's labelling duties, the farmer's reading of the label) and that crop damage needs a professional assessment. No claim, complaint outcome or compensation is reported.

What remains unknown

  • The AI app is not named in the originating report; a broadcaster's Weibo relay names Doubao without sourcing.
  • The loss estimate of about 150,000 yuan appears in relays and the observations lead but not in the text of the Lizhi report as republished; its origin was not confirmed.
  • No formal agronomic assessment of the cause is reported; the quoted lawyer said one would be needed to assign liability.
  • Whether the pesticide seller warned about fomesafen's registered crops, and whether any compensation or complaint followed, is not reported.
  • The Lizhi News site's own copy of the report was not located; the outlet's Tencent News account copy was read.
  • The spraying date is not stated separately; the 10 July date is the date of the chat, and the report says the seedlings failed the day after spraying.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The Lizhi News reporter examined the farmer's chat log showing the app-generated plan with fomesafen; the app's support line acknowledged that its answers are assembled from public web content and logged the loss; the app's own follow-up reply attributed the crop deaths to fomesafen. Single reporting chain; no formal agronomic assessment is reported.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 10 July 2026 the farmer asked the AI app for a sesame weeding and pest-control plan and then a drone-spraying version; the app produced a 'full plan' naming haloxyfop-P-methyl and fomesafen as herbicides plus two insecticides; he sprayed the whole 150-mu field and the seedlings died the next day.

Causal attribution. Farmer's account and the chat log viewed by the Lizhi News reporter; single chain.

  • news.qq.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    «记者翻看吴大伯和AI软件的对话记录，7月10号» (the reporter looked through the chat log: 10 July); «AI最终生成了“百亩芝麻飞防除草+除虫全套方案”：推荐除草剂“高效氟吡甲禾灵”和“氟磺胺草醚”» (the AI finally generated a 'full plan', recommending the herbicides haloxyfop-P-methyl and fomesafen); «喷下去第二天苗就不行了，草和苗一起死了，苗死得更快» (the day after spraying the seedlings failed; weeds and seedlings died together, the seedlings faster); «150亩芝麻苗一夜之间全部枯萎» (150 mu of sesame seedlings all withered overnight).
  • ithome.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    «2026 年 7 月 10 日，他向 AI 询问芝麻田除草除虫方案» (on 10 July 2026 he asked the AI for a sesame weeding and pest-control plan).; '吴大伯按方案用无人机全田喷洒' (he sprayed the whole field by drone per the plan)
Reported A nearby pesticide dealer and an agronomist said fomesafen is a broadleaf herbicide for soybean fields that cannot be sprayed on sesame and that whole-field application kills the crop; when the farmer questioned the app afterwards, it said fomesafen was the cause.

Causal attribution. Pesticide dealer and agronomist consulted by the reporter; no formal assessment of the cause is reported.

  • news.qq.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    «除草剂“氟磺胺草醚”，是一种专用于大豆田的阔叶除草剂，不能喷洒在芝麻田中» (fomesafen is a broadleaf herbicide for soybean fields and cannot be sprayed on sesame); «全田打的话肯定会打死作物» (whole-field spraying will certainly kill the crop); «AI告诉他，配方里的“氟磺胺草醚”是致死芝麻的元凶» (the AI told him the fomesafen in the mix was the culprit that killed the sesame).
Reported The chat window carried a small header line that AI output may be wrong and should be verified, which the farmer had never noticed; the app's customer service said the software has no knowledge base of its own and assembles answers from public web content, and logged the loss for follow-up; no reply had been received at publication.

Causal attribution. Support-line reply recorded by the reporter; single chain.

  • news.qq.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    «AI对话记录的最上方，注明一行小字：AI生成可能有误，注意核实» (at the top of the chat log a line of small print: AI output may be wrong, verify); «AI软件没有自己的知识库，它是根据网络公开信息进行整合的» (the AI software has no knowledge base of its own; it integrates public web information); «针对吴大伯的损失，工作人员表示将登记反馈。截至发稿前，记者暂未获得回复» (on the loss, staff said they would log it for feedback; no reply by press time).
Reported Relays and a trade commentary put the loss at about 150,000 yuan, and the trade commentary says the platform admitted the plan was wrong; neither statement appears in the text of the originating report.

Causal attribution. Unsourced relay and commentary statements; recorded as reported and not adopted as fact.

  • ithome.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '吴大伯按方案用无人机全田喷洒，次日 150 亩芝麻苗全部枯萎，草和苗一同死亡，预计损失约 15 万元' (he sprayed the whole field by drone per the plan; the next day 150 mu of seedlings withered; estimated loss about 150,000 yuan)
  • sina.cn(opens in new tab) context · Chinese
    «导致150亩芝麻一夜枯萎受损» (leading to 150 mu of sesame withering overnight); the post names the app as «豆包» (Doubao), a detail absent from s1. (150 mu withered; no monetary figure) and the post names the app as '豆包'
  • enongzi.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    «面对损失，AI 平台主动承认方案出错» (facing the loss, the AI platform admitted on its own that the plan was wrong), unsourced commentary.

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 3 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Chinese on 2026-09-19: the Lizhi News (荔枝新闻, Jiangsu Broadcasting) report of 1 August 2026 republished on the outlet's official Tencent News account; body recovered from the page's script payload. Model-read original; English glosses are unreviewed by a bilingual human. The outlet's own site copy was not located. Applies to s1.

Read in Chinese on 2026-09-19 (ITHome, 9 August 2026). A condensed retelling attributed to Lizhi News; adds an estimated loss of about 150,000 yuan and states the spraying was whole-field by drone; these details are the relay's, not in s1. Same chain as s1. Applies to s2.

Read in Chinese on 2026-09-19 (enongzi.com, dated 5 August 2026, byline 一条农资 agricultural-inputs trade commentary). Restates the case and asserts the platform admitted the plan was wrong; no sourcing given. Applies to s3.

Read in Chinese on 2026-09-19: a Sina relay of a 3 August 2026 Weibo post by 群众新闻 (Shaanxi Daily) carrying an Anhui Shixun (安徽视讯) item that names the app as Doubao and reports the broadcaster's call to the 12316 farm hotline. Case facts restate the Lizhi report; the app name is not in s1. Applies to s4.

Event countries: China. Affected-person countries: China. Court countries: Unknown.

The report locates the farmer and the field in Chuzhou, Anhui (安徽滁州的农户); no court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-19: Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an ordinary-assistance case with a concrete property loss to one identified person after acting on an AI assistant's advice; the reporter inspected the chat log. Single reporting chain, so claims are recorded as reported. The farmer is identified only by surname and age; the app is unnamed.

People described

One farmer, 67, in Chuzhou, Anhui, identified in the report only by surname

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One farmer whose field was sprayed; exact count of one.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-assistant#agriculture#herbicide#crop-loss#china#anhui#wrong-advice#elderly-user#property-loss

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Chuzhou, Anhui: a 67-year-old farmer sprayed 150 mu of sesame by drone with an AI assistant's 'weeding and pest-control plan' that named a soybean-field herbicide; the seedlings died overnight. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-chuzhou-anhui-farmer-ai-herbicide-plan-sesame-loss

BibTeX

@misc{2026_chuzhou_anhui_farmer_ai_herbicide_plan_sesame_loss,
  title = {Chuzhou, Anhui: a 67-year-old farmer sprayed 150 mu of sesame by drone with an AI assistant's 'weeding and pest-control plan' that named a soybean-field herbicide; the seedlings died overnight},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-chuzhou-anhui-farmer-ai-herbicide-plan-sesame-loss}
}

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