I saw the promoted tweet last night.

@CanIEatThisBothas tips from the FDA and Mayo Clinic.

But when I started asking questions, things got weird.

Spoiler: It lies.

Theres no special concern about nitrites or nitrates in pregnancy.

(Theyreprobably fine for everyone else, too.)

What else is this bot telling people?

A lot of garbage, it turns out.

It said eggplants contain large amounts of phytohormones which can stimulate menstruation when consumed daily.This is not a thing.

The bot citedan FDA page on fruits and vegetablesthat does not mention eggplant.

And it didnt give a source for the mushroom factoid at all.

(She had heard these myths before, though.)

So I asked the bots maker,reply.ai, what their sourcesreallyare.

Co-founder Clara de Soto replied with a list that included FDA, Mayo Clinic, and now Parents.com.

(Fun fact: the bots answer for Can I eat brie?

cites a Parents.com article but gets its conclusion wrong.)

Dont rely on this bot for any advice in pregnancy.

It wants you to ask it about oysters but doesnt mention that theactual FDA saysraw oysters are risky.

It gives a dismissive, unhelpful answer if you ask it about beer or wine.

It is, in short, very bad at its job.

Why wouldnt you at least run it by a nutritionist or some kind of knowledgeable health professional?

Were a technology company, not pregnancy experts, de Soto told me on the phone.

Basically, this is just a mothers day themed stunt to advertise reply.ais bot-creating service.

We feel Botifying a useful knowledge base like this helps to bridge that gap.

Way to take advantage of pregnant women in your eagerness to sell bots, reply.ai.

Would you think its okay to build acustomer service botthat tells people the opposite of whats in company policy?

Probably not, becausemoneywould be at stake, not something unimportant like a persons health, right?

PS.Here are the real answerspregnant women want when they ask Can I eat this?

You could probably even make a bot to tell people all about them.

Update 5/15 at 10am: Sometime on Sunday (mothers day!

), two days after we published this article, the bot stopped answering questions about food.

Instead, it now says Were currently updating our database to confirm all answers are safe and accurate.

Lets hope they do the right thing.

Update 6/28: The bot is still out of commission.

I think they forgot about it.

At least until next Mothers Day?