AI is giving bad advice to people who want to visit Acadia

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 28, 2026

More visitors than ever are using artificial intelligence to plan trips to Acadia National Park. But the information they’re receiving isn’t always reliable. AI tools often provide inaccurate or outdated advice. As the park welcomes more tourists each year — Acadia recorded more than 4 million visits last year — many are first-timers who may not realize their itinerary is riddled with errors. One TikTok itinerary with more than 14,000 likes — tagged with a disclaimer that the video contained AI-generated media — raved about a coastal road trip starting in Portland, stopping in Kennebunkport, crossing Penobscot Bay and ending on Mount Desert Island. There is no such ferry, and Kennebunkport is southwest of Portland. Among the most glaring omissions in AI-generated Acadia itineraries was how to navigate transportation. Though two models — Claude and ChatGPT — warned that the park becomes particularly busy in summer, neither recommended the Island Explorer, the park’s free shuttle bus service.