Over 100 Maui Visitors Completely Lost Over Weekend Due to GPS App Malfunction

A new artificial intelligence-based GPS program malfunctioned over the weekend on Maui, sending visitors to the total opposite of where they wanted to go.

“It seemed kind of smart-alecky, sending people who typed in ‘rainbow eucalyptus’ to the other side of the island past Kula where it looks like a moonscape,” said Harold Kue of the Pacific Disaster Center, based in Kihei.

The Center was contacted Saturday to monitor the situation in case emergency personnel tried the app after hearing about it from others.

"We did have one engine crew end up in Wailea when they wanted to go to Kahului Harbor," said Jim McGillicuddy of the Maui Fire Department. "Besides that rookie manuever, our crews knew when they were going the wrong way, especially since we figured out that every time it was exactly the opposite direction."

The new ChatGPS merges a global positioning system with an artificial intelligence program, in a location-search application for mobile phones intended to rival the popular Shaka Guide apps.

The concept was to give visitors even more information than what's been available on any search app, based simply on the verbal descriptions of the locations and why someone wanted to go there.

Touting its considerable application of AI technology, the app was launched on May 1 and reportedly took off like wildfire ~ until Friday night.

By Saturday morning, dozens of lost visitor reports began hitting 911 dispatch centers.

By mid-day on Mother's Day, there were over 100 reports of tourists on the wrong side of the island.

"The saddest were those stuck in Hana with no gas, and no gas station," Kue said, "When they just wanted to go from Kapalua to Lahaina."

ChatGPS personnel said Sunday afternoon that they believe further incidents will not occur, after snooping around and finding unusual messaging buried deep in programming that wasn't there before.

The company blames Russian bots for the troubles.

"Seems like everyone blames Russian bots for everything nowadays anyway, right?" said Izzy Nuez of ChatGPS, based in Seattle. "We didn't know what we were looking at until we saw a tagline buried deep in the code.

"The beginning said the equivalent of 'The Kihei Roundabout is Silly,' which raised an eyebrow. But what really got us was the second part, which said, literally, 'Signed, Jractical Poke.' "

Steven Atler, a visitor who ended up at Manawainui Gulch when he typed "Visit Paia" into ChatGPS, said after an initial fear of being totally lost, he actually liked where he ended up.

"It looks like hardly anyone else visits here, which is weird, because these cliffs and the views are breathtaking," Atler said. "Which we preferred anyway since there are just too many insane homeless people wandering around Paia these days."