It's a known fact that no map is ever 100 per cent accurate with place names occasionally slightly out of kilter.
But bungling council bosses have been left red faced after using AI to generate a map of key locations that left one Scottish region looking ‘like someone had played pin the tail on the donkey’ with its towns, villages and lochs.
The map, which was to highlight at risk bus routes across Perth and Kinross, was due to be presented at a full meeting of the council on Wednesday.
But after it was posted online, constituents were quick to point out the glaring errors which, among others, saw Lochearnhead, on the western shore of Loch Earn, relocated around 20 miles north of where it should be.
Loch Tay was renamed Loch Tummel, the latter finding itself about 25 miles south-west from Pitlochry instead of six miles north-west of the town.
St Fillans, which lies just five miles west of Comrie on the A85, was also relocated around 15 miles further south, while Kinross was moved several miles away from its usual spot on the western shore of Loch Leven.
One local said: ‘AI might not be the super intelligence some think it is.’
Another suggested: ‘Would it really have been too difficult or time consuming for an employee to produce an accurate version?’
The AI-generated map of Perth and Kinross had several glaring errors
On the map Kinross was moved several miles away from its usual spot on the western shore of Loch Leven
A third quipped: ‘I could have sworn Methven was west not north of Perth. Stanley’s way out and poor Meigle’s not getting any respect either.’
And another critic said it looked ‘like someone played “pin the tail on the donkey” with our towns’.
The map was part of a report to councillors to discuss a review of the region’s public transport including plans for a ‘phased inhouse transport operating model’.
But it did not go down well, with a disgruntled service user saying: ‘If you can’t draw the area map properly, how do you think you would be better [at] running the buses.’
Scottish Conservative Councillor John Duff told the Mail: ‘It is unfortunate that we didn’t spot the errors on this map before it went out. However, the matter has been rectified.
‘I suppose it is a lesson to everyone that you shouldn’t trust everything that AI tells you. We still need to read the small print and do our own fact checking.’
Perth and Kinross Council confirmed that ‘AI tools were used to assist with the visual presentation of this map’ and that an updated version was being made available.
But a spokesman said: ‘The map is intended to illustrate levels of risk to bus services across broad areas of Perth and Kinross, rather than provide a detailed geographical representation of individual communities or routes.
‘The red, yellow and green boundaries reflect the areas used for the risk assessment, while geographical features and settlements are shown simply to help orientate the reader.
‘However, the map was printed at a lower resolution than intended and we apologise for any confusion this has caused.'
