It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our tech columnist
They are real people these friends of mine, but you don’t know them, because they are from a different school. And you won’t see them this summer at all because… they are both actually models in Canada during the summer.
But totally cured and now they get boners also with THIS ONE TRICK that doctors HATE it!!!
I don’t know what your problem is. My friends are indeed real people. They are not cured, I said they have diagnoses.
One of them has had diffuse but severe symptoms for at least the last 15 years. Bloating, stomach pain, vomiting, circulation problems, etc. She had nights of vomiting and diarrhea where she said she thought was dying, that’s how miseable she felt. She went to many doctors, they ran many checks, and she only ever got the same result: there is nothing to be found, it must be psychosomatic, probably stress. This result, by the way, is a very common one when you’re a woman and you’re seeking medical attention, even for serious problems. Last year, she discussed all her symptoms and observations (like foods and acitivities that seemed to make the symptoms worse) with ChatGPT and it suggested it might be MCAS. She got medication that is supposed to help with MCAS and she is feeling so much better now. She is not cured, but she can have a normal life again. I can tell she has about twice as much energy as she used to have. That is a huge life quality improvment.
The other friend has had bad hearing on one ear for almost all his life. Doctors never found a cause, all they said was “well we could cut it open and take a look if you want” which didn’t sound so great so he never had it checked further. After discussion with some LLM chat bot, he went to another doctor and insisted on getting a CT scan. Turns out he has a (benign) tumor in his ear that’s been growing ever since he was a child. It will be surgically removed soon because it won’t stop growing on its own and might even grow into the brain one day. If he’s lucky, his ear might even be much better afterwards (unless too much of the structure is already destroyed by the tumor growing).
Look, I know it sounds kinda stupid, but I promise you, these are real stories. I know that if you do it wrong, discussing health issues with an LLM can absolutely backfire and be very dangerous. But if you can trust your own brain and don’t switch it off just because you’re using an AI, it can actually be really helpful.
The medical field is one of the places where AI has made real, tangible improvements.
I can’t vouch for that other person’s anecdote, but it seems entirely plausible that an LLM chatbot would be able to better diagnose an issue than a search engine, or even a human doctor, especially if the underlying issue was something like an autoimmune disease, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose.
One of the big flaws in the medical profession (and, really, most professions) is that once you are out of school, nothing forces you to keep learning as the field advances. This potentially, and counterintuitively, results in gaps in knowledge that increase the longer a doctor has been practicing. LLMs, with access to the newer medical information and with the ability to receive and output natural language, do make good tools for diagnosis.
AI, as it turns out, is also way better at analyzing MRI scans and x-rays than humans.
An old-fashioned Google search can point you to more information, if you’re curious about how AI has advanced the medical field.
Super cool! Well we can base your personal healthcare on AI’s sole guidance and if you are misdiagnosed, injured or dead as a result of an “oopsie”, no human will be held legally liable - fun!
So no real stakes for anyone to get it right, as with human-led interventions (with careers on the line at every stage to keep people engaged and honest). But corporations will probably just naturally do the right thing.
But you’re brave, you offer yourself as tribute to the lying machine. Tight tight tight!!!
You seem very passionate about this topic, but you’re not really adding much to the discussion.
Don’t worry, its coming across loud and clear that AI could cure cancer and you’d still think it was better to have cancer than use AI. I get it. AI = bad, full stop. Message received.
“AI” isn’t a thing. Computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing and neural networks are. These can all be useful tools when regulated and maintained with active oversight to balance with society’s other core priorities. What’s at question is the current method and human cost for this frivolously hyped, deceptively marketed lying machine with a single tangible use to date, being the operating system for Facebook’s pervert glasses. You didn’t read, of missed the entire point of, this important article, shared from an important contemporary mind.
Name and cite SPECIFIC examples of anything you claim.
P.s. you don’t “cure cancer”… cancer is a broad heading for hundreds of unique types of disease, presenting in different, completely unique systems within the human body. Like AI, “a cure for cancer” is a broad generalization of complex underlying systems that ignorant people make frivolously - People who think they HAVE the entire knowledge of the world in their brains, when they actually only have a plastic rectangle in their pants pocket with privilege-gated access to a (mostly corporate) CURATED VERSION of the world’s historic knowledge. So if you’ve “cured cancer” friend, why aren’t you treating the 20-30k humans that will die from a form or cancer today worldwide?
Medical AI is usually more along the lines of ‘we’ve created a proprietary model for computer aided diagnostics specific to x disease being scanned with y modality and we’ve taken this through the regulatory process in z jurisdiction’ than ‘put your symptoms into an LLM lol’.
Trust me, bro!
They are real people these friends of mine, but you don’t know them, because they are from a different school. And you won’t see them this summer at all because… they are both actually models in Canada during the summer.
But totally cured and now they get boners also with THIS ONE TRICK that doctors HATE it!!!
I don’t know what your problem is. My friends are indeed real people. They are not cured, I said they have diagnoses.
One of them has had diffuse but severe symptoms for at least the last 15 years. Bloating, stomach pain, vomiting, circulation problems, etc. She had nights of vomiting and diarrhea where she said she thought was dying, that’s how miseable she felt. She went to many doctors, they ran many checks, and she only ever got the same result: there is nothing to be found, it must be psychosomatic, probably stress. This result, by the way, is a very common one when you’re a woman and you’re seeking medical attention, even for serious problems. Last year, she discussed all her symptoms and observations (like foods and acitivities that seemed to make the symptoms worse) with ChatGPT and it suggested it might be MCAS. She got medication that is supposed to help with MCAS and she is feeling so much better now. She is not cured, but she can have a normal life again. I can tell she has about twice as much energy as she used to have. That is a huge life quality improvment.
The other friend has had bad hearing on one ear for almost all his life. Doctors never found a cause, all they said was “well we could cut it open and take a look if you want” which didn’t sound so great so he never had it checked further. After discussion with some LLM chat bot, he went to another doctor and insisted on getting a CT scan. Turns out he has a (benign) tumor in his ear that’s been growing ever since he was a child. It will be surgically removed soon because it won’t stop growing on its own and might even grow into the brain one day. If he’s lucky, his ear might even be much better afterwards (unless too much of the structure is already destroyed by the tumor growing).
Look, I know it sounds kinda stupid, but I promise you, these are real stories. I know that if you do it wrong, discussing health issues with an LLM can absolutely backfire and be very dangerous. But if you can trust your own brain and don’t switch it off just because you’re using an AI, it can actually be really helpful.
The medical field is one of the places where AI has made real, tangible improvements.
I can’t vouch for that other person’s anecdote, but it seems entirely plausible that an LLM chatbot would be able to better diagnose an issue than a search engine, or even a human doctor, especially if the underlying issue was something like an autoimmune disease, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose.
One of the big flaws in the medical profession (and, really, most professions) is that once you are out of school, nothing forces you to keep learning as the field advances. This potentially, and counterintuitively, results in gaps in knowledge that increase the longer a doctor has been practicing. LLMs, with access to the newer medical information and with the ability to receive and output natural language, do make good tools for diagnosis.
AI, as it turns out, is also way better at analyzing MRI scans and x-rays than humans.
An old-fashioned Google search can point you to more information, if you’re curious about how AI has advanced the medical field.
Super cool! Well we can base your personal healthcare on AI’s sole guidance and if you are misdiagnosed, injured or dead as a result of an “oopsie”, no human will be held legally liable - fun!
So no real stakes for anyone to get it right, as with human-led interventions (with careers on the line at every stage to keep people engaged and honest). But corporations will probably just naturally do the right thing.
But you’re brave, you offer yourself as tribute to the lying machine. Tight tight tight!!!
You seem very passionate about this topic, but you’re not really adding much to the discussion.
Don’t worry, its coming across loud and clear that AI could cure cancer and you’d still think it was better to have cancer than use AI. I get it. AI = bad, full stop. Message received.
“AI” isn’t a thing. Computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing and neural networks are. These can all be useful tools when regulated and maintained with active oversight to balance with society’s other core priorities. What’s at question is the current method and human cost for this frivolously hyped, deceptively marketed lying machine with a single tangible use to date, being the operating system for Facebook’s pervert glasses. You didn’t read, of missed the entire point of, this important article, shared from an important contemporary mind.
Name and cite SPECIFIC examples of anything you claim.
P.s. you don’t “cure cancer”… cancer is a broad heading for hundreds of unique types of disease, presenting in different, completely unique systems within the human body. Like AI, “a cure for cancer” is a broad generalization of complex underlying systems that ignorant people make frivolously - People who think they HAVE the entire knowledge of the world in their brains, when they actually only have a plastic rectangle in their pants pocket with privilege-gated access to a (mostly corporate) CURATED VERSION of the world’s historic knowledge. So if you’ve “cured cancer” friend, why aren’t you treating the 20-30k humans that will die from a form or cancer today worldwide?
Medical AI is usually more along the lines of ‘we’ve created a proprietary model for computer aided diagnostics specific to x disease being scanned with y modality and we’ve taken this through the regulatory process in z jurisdiction’ than ‘put your symptoms into an LLM lol’.
There are studies that show that LLMs (chatbots) perform as well or better than human physicians.
I’m not suggesting getting rid of physicians, though. This is a tool for humans, not a replacement.