alt Hacker NewsI understand all the chatter about LLMs hallucinating, or making assumptions, or not being able to understand or provide the more human/emotional element of health care.
But the question I ask myself is: is this better than the alternative? if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help?
The answers I can anticipate are: questionably trustworthy web content; an overconfident friend who may have read questionably trustworthy web content; my mom who is referencing health recommendations from 1972. And as best I can imagine, LLMs are going to likely to provide health advice that's as good but likely better than any of those alternatives.
With that said, I acknowledge that people are likely more inclined to trust ChatGPT more like a licensed medical provider, at which point the comparison may become somewhat more murky, especially with higher severity health concerns.
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There is nothing wrong with obtaining additional, even false, information from any source that is available to you. (AI, Search, Websites/Blogs, Podcasts, influencers, word-of-mouth, etc)
It's what you do with that information that is important - the correct path is to take your questions to a medical professional. Only a medical professional can give you a diagnosis, they can also answer other questions and address incorrect information.
ChatGPT is very good for providing you with new avenues to follow-up upon, it may even help discover the correct condition which a doctor had missed. However it is not able to deliver a diagnosis, always leave that to a medical professional.
This actually differs very little from people Googling their symptoms - where the result was the same: take the new information to your medical professional, and remember to get a second opinion (or more) for any serious medical condition, or issues which do not seem to be fully resolved.
This is the same as Googling your symptoms, but on a more broad scale. I think the issue here is how many people are going to give themself self-induced health anxiety because of this result.
There is no deny on positive case of people actually being helped by ChatGPT. It's well known that Doctors can often dismiss symptoms of rare conditions, and those people specifically find way more success on the internet because the people with similar conditions tends to gather here. This effect will repeat with ChatGPT.
> if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help?
To an MD?
> if I wasn't asking ChatGPT, where would I go to get help?
Is this serious question? Can't you call/visit doctor?
Reach further in to your local community? You need to look outside the screens. Your life will be better for it.
Chatgpt helped me solve a side effect I had with a medication just by suggesting a changing to dose timing. Solid improvement to my QoL just from one small change. My doctor completely agreed with the suggestion.
When I got worried about an exercise suggestion from an app I'm using (weight being used for prone dumbbell leg curls) Chatgpt confirmed there is a suggested upper limit on weight for that exercise and that I should switch it out. I appreciate not injuring myself. (Gemini gave a horrible response, heh...)
Chatgpt is dangerous because it is still too agreeable and when you do go outside what it knows the answers get wrong fast, but when it is useful it is very useful.