How AI (and Mushrooms) Are Helping Fight Poverty in China's Most Remote Villages

The last thing on Geru Drolma's mind was becoming an internet celebrity. All she wanted was to make rent. But the steamed buns Drolma rose at 5 a.m. each morning to make in her village in western China's Sichuan province just weren't selling fast enough. So with the bills mounting up, Drolma set off to hunt for wild fungi she hoped to sell at the local market, following the same azalea-strewn mountain paths carved by generations of her fellow ethnic Tibetans before her. Finding the best fungi varieties--like the sought-after matsutake, or pine mushroom--is not easy.