Welcome to ‘Mane’? Kentucky middle schoolers sent home with a very poor AI map of US

At least they didn’t put us in Canada this time.

Earlier this month, Farnsley Middle School in Kentucky sent students home with an educational packet chock full of misinformation generated by artificial intelligence, according to the TV station WDRB.

On a map of the United States, Kentucky was misspelled as Venecky, Texas as Taxas, Louisiana as Lookoong and Maine as Mane.

Not only that, but the purportedly educational packet’s map included the previously unknown Narina-like territory of Beehive nestled between Washington state (spelled correctly) and the Cnited Territory (British Columbia?). Then there’s the state of Gowagu, existing in a liminal space between Iowa and Vitoiis, er, Illinois. Now that’s not even close.

No doubt to the horror of the Quebecois, Quebec was annexed by Ontario on this map.

While Texas, Illinois and British Columbia might not be used to geographic indignity, Maine has long bedeviled those unpracticed with geography or whose knowledge of our state boundaries stopped prior to the so-called Aroostook War, the resolution of which ceded our claim to roughly 800 square miles to Canada.

It’s already hard enough dealing with people who think Stephen King made up Maine. This certainly won’t lessen how frequently we hear questions about whether Maine is a Canadian province or a TSA agent informing a traveler they need a passport for an international flight from Denver to Bangor. Yes, people have told us about these experiences.

The AI hallucinations weren’t limited to geography.

The packet also included illegible moon phases and a periodic table that included both nonexistent elements and others that defied the known laws of physics (magnesium was given a negative atomic mass), according to the media outlet Futurism. Dmitri Mendeleev, who put all the elements into columns and rows, must be spinning in his grave, in yet another defiance of physics.

Then there’s the solar system. Farnsley’s students were presented with a solar system model that renamed Mars as Marc, but to be fair, the name Marc is derived from the Roman god of war, who lent his name to the Red Planet.

Now that’s all bad enough. But here’s what makes this worse. Parents coughed up $10 to Jefferson County Public Schools for this “educational” agenda, according to WDRB.

Administrators have acknowledged the many errors throughout pages 19-36 in the packet and told teachers to have students remove them. But parents aren’t satisfied with that and have called for accountability from administrators.

“This is not a misprint,” parent Stacey Morris told WDRB. “Someone did not look at what they were handing out to the students.”

“Oh, brave new world that has such people in it!” A brave new world, indeed, Miranda.

Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated WDRB’s call sign in one reference.