Serious medical error from Perplexity’s chatbot
We recorded 4 claims from this post. 3 were checked against evidence. 1 can’t be checked. Read the post at its source.
Claims from this post (4)
In the order they appear in the post. Each quotation is the speaker’s words in this post. A label such as “Supported” or “Can’t be checked” is the claim’s current assessment; its page has the evidence and the reasons.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid
“A serious and instructive medical error from the GenAI search engine Perplexity below, sent to me by a reader of this Substack, with permission to share.”
What we tested: Perplexity's GenAI search engine gave a serious medical error when asked about sitting at a computer after open-heart surgery.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid
“Let’s call this kind of mess generative pastische: sound advice for the particular circumstance (sternotomy) has been combined with generic advice (about ergonomics) that would sensible in other circumstances but deeply problematic here.”
What we tested: The error arose from generative pastiche: the chatbot combined sound situation-specific advice with generic advice that was dangerous in this context.
Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid
“Yet another reason why we should never trust today’s chatbots.”
What we tested: People should never trust today's chatbots.
Assessment: SupportedSaid
“Shortly after I sent yesterday’s note on OpenAI’s latest woes, it was revealed that they are also under SEC investigation.”
What we tested: OpenAI is under SEC investigation as of late February 2024.
What happened: The contemporaneous report describes an ongoing SEC investigation involving OpenAI. This supports the claim that OpenAI was under investigation at the time, while retaining Reuters' attribution to the Wall Street Journal. (Reuters, republished by Yahoo Finance, )