Trip planning with artificial intelligence!

There’s been a lot of hand wringing lately about artificial intelligence taking over the world as we know it, sooner, rather than later.

It all makes perfect sense.

Why just the other day I put good ol’ AI to the test on the Recreation.gov website.

You know Recreation.gov. It’s that super helpful website where you get your reservations to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road or get a backcountry permit for Glacier.

The old backcountry permit (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s now a Wilderness permit, but less and less of Glacier feels like wilderness. When you can hear the Sun Road or a train from camp, or the guy in the campsite next to you is watching a movie on his iPad, you’re not all that far from civilization in my book.)

But I digress. Like I said, I was on the Recreation.gov website when I noticed a new tab called “AI search.”

So I typed in “Glacier Park camping.”

And I got exactly what I expected!

(Lake Alpine) Silver Tip campground!

Where is Lake Alpine Silvertip campground you ask? Why it’s just around the corner from Glacier, of course, not far from Arnold, California, a mere 1,020 miles away, or a 17-hour drive (17 hours and 15 minutes if you stop to go to the bathroom once and ignore the time change.)

Now the AI search is admittedly in “Beta” development. And to its credit, if you just type in Glacier Park, then yes, Glacier Park does pop up.

But if you add the word campground, it gets very, very confused even though the prompt says “to be as specific as possible.”

So I tried being as specific as possible again and wrote in this time: “Glacier Park Wilderness Camping.”

I waited a second, and (drum roll)… Got the (Lake Alpine) Silvertip Campground again!

I’m sure artificial intelligence will someday fix the glitch.

But it will take a server farm the size of the old CFAC building to do it.

Have a good week.