Like the term "slop", misuse of a pop psychology term like "AI psychosis" is another block to critical thinking and a casual dismissal of a conversation.

You're right, LLM-generated answers are not the same as those from a qualified expert. Sometimes they're better.

Case in point. I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine about going off propranolol. He wanted to stop it because he didn't like the side effects and only wanted to take it as needed for anxiety-related problems in public situations. His primary care said to just stop taking the drug. Gemini told him that you need to have a tapering protocol, and you need to work it out with your doctor.

In this case, his primary care, theoretically a "qualified expert," was wrong, and Gemini was right. His course of action at that point was to get a new primary care that had better knowledge that matched the vetted medical sites I pointed him to.

fwiw, he trusted my advice and validation of his plan to get a new primary care doctor. The reason he trusted me is that he's seen the prescription drug disasters I've gone through, and knows how deeply I've had to educate myself as a form of self-defense.

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grey-area 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Great example, but not for the reasons you think. You have zero qualifications to make that judgement call. You don’t know if the standard protocol was right in this instance or inappropriate (depends on dose side effects etc etc) and I certainly wouldn’t go anywhere near Gemini to try to verify that.

Please stop relying on word generators for medical advice, period.

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robocat 10 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> Please stop relying on word generators for medical advice

Ironic that you are giving medical advice.

You might as well say don't read books.

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rickydroll 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, you don't rely on an LLM solely for medical advice. You use it to get orientation to look at other sources. In my friend's case, I was relaying to him what I learned when taking a similar drug, my doctor's cautions on stopping the drug, what the manufacturer says about stopping the drug, and the published dosing schedule.

I guess you're right about me having zero qualifications. I only have a lifetime of experience with treatments for the various conditions I live with and the dozens of drugs that have failed to treat these conditions. I've been forced into self-education (learning how to read the research papers and the manufacturer info sheets) just like any patient with a complex medical situation needs to do for self-advocacy. This knowledge has helped me catch doctors' prescribing mistakes. I wish I'd had the skill before one such mistake toasted my kidneys.

	▲	customguy 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Would the same doctor also casually give you advice on suicide, confirm the suitability of a piece of rope, and all that? You cannot cherry pick like that. When you talk of "answers" in the same category as humans give them, of "beings", you already are outside the realms of critical thought. > I wish I'd had the skill before one such mistake toasted my kidneys. I wish the people who died from bad LLM advice were still alive. Many of them had their life still ahead of them. You can't guilt me into confusing generated text with answers while ignoring all that. I also have pain and suffering in my life, one aspect of it are these attempts to devalue humans by putting probabalitities of words humans produced on the same level as them, calling them "beings" and all that. If I could remove all intellectual dishonesty from the world and have some pain in my right hand side diodes in exchange, I'd take that bullet for y'all. So I'm not impressed by this tear duct jerking.

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cognitiveinline 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We'll see. I'm guessing you'll have to accept a very different world.

	▲	customguy 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We're seeing, right now, that the people pushing for it are doing it in ways just as you do. Maybe you'll have to accept being considered a second class slop human, who knows? Or do the threats only flow one way?