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Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by figassis on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @09:04AM (#43171985)
People will not know to ask about platelet count. She had to tell the AI what she was seeing, and then upload a picture to get a more precise diagnosis and recommendation. You can't upload a photo to google and get a similar result. You will get lots if similar photos maybe. And even if you could, the UX would be terrible. Combine that with having AI on your phone and being able to just take a picture, or talking live to it.

Anyway, this comment reads wildly similar to the dropbox comment.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by p_ing on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:27AM (#43173107)
> People will not know to ask about platelet count.

I would. You would.

> Anyway, this comment reads wildly similar to the dropbox comment.

My point was that this isn't revolutionary/interesting. AI w/ camera can detect apples that have bruises, but AI's cousin Vision/ML has been doing this since at least the early 2000s.

Further to my point was that while yes, using all of the ways the author went about identifying the issue (picture etc) AI makes for a nicer UX, it wasn't required, nor was the invasion of privacy into the author's medical history required.

The author torched a forest to figure out their issue when burning the paper mill would have done the trick.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by Ukv on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @11:54AM (#43174342)
> I would. You would.

I would've had no idea prior to reading this article.

There seems to be real value in the LLM being able to probe with relevant diagnostic questions, then picking out "Your platelet count is alarmingly low. You should go to the ER urgently." from the three lab work panels uploaded. Even if I had properly gone through those results myself at that point (not a given, by the timing), the level of danger seems very easy to miss.

> My point was that this isn't revolutionary/interesting [...] it wasn't required [...] The author torched a forest to figure out their issue when burning the paper mill would have done the trick.

And you can do anything a computer can with sticks and sand.

If an LLM is the best tool available (that isn't a given, but it does seem to have done well here) I don't see what makes it the equivalent to torching a forest. Its size? Energy usage? More capable than strictly necessary? Maybe factors I'd consider if designing, say, object detection for a low-powered doorbell camera - but not really things I'd worry about in what's potentially a medical emergency.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by FeepingCreature on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:48AM (#43173418)
I would not have known that the "low platelet" on the report and the red dots were related, and I would not have brought it up or searched for it.
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by bethanymarz on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @11:15AM (#43173772)
Neither did i
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by kccqzy on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:08AM (#43172839)
I don't know about this specific result but I've uploaded photos to Google Lens with good success. It's not an LLM or generative AI so it can't generate a response, but it's actually really good at identifying things in an image.

I agree with you about the Dropbox comment though. This whole thing is about having a polished user experience rather than bouncing between Google searches, Google Lens, and various other websites.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by nyreed on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:06AM (#43172791)
The results page usually should flag up results which are outside of a normal range, and what that normal range is.

I think that should then be enough to know to Google "Low platelet count". The person may not know the significance of that immediately, true.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by bethanymarz on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @11:15AM (#43173767)
Yes, it showed low platelet count, but no indication as to whether it was like "life-threateningly low" or just like, below baseline
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by wholinator2 on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @02:21PM (#43176109)
Yes, that's a serious ux issue in modern test results. Instead of just a range there needs to be some kind of variance score. It can be presented simply like, 10% out of range, or, 20x lower than normal. Hell, even just a second range that says "critical, seek medical attention". Then you can judge how close to that line is worth going for. There just should be more information. It's all computers nowadays anyways, they could print thousands of words, send me a video explanation, they could do anything!
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by bethanymarz on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @07:34PM (#43179280)
Great ideas here
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by giancarlostoro on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @09:53AM (#43172610)
> Anyway, this comment reads wildly similar to the dropbox comment.

Dropbox?

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by Rychard on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @09:56AM (#43172648)
The comment is referencing the "Dropbox" comment of lore

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Basically, something along the lines of (paraphrasing) 'this can be done today by using existing tooling'

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by 147 on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @09:54AM (#43172625)
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by impure-aqua on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @09:56AM (#43172641)
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by spudlyo on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:01AM (#43172730)
> And even if you could, the UX would be terrible.

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...oh by the way, you should probably go to the ER.

Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by xigoi on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @12:46PM (#43175010)
Don’t fool yourself, that’s what ChatGPT will turn into soon. It has to repay the huge VC money somehow.
Re:ChatGPT Saved My Life (no, seriously, I'm writing this fr... by simion314 on Tuesday February 25, 2025 @10:06AM (#43172816)
She already knew that something is not normal in the test result, so she could just have typed the text from the result in google but sure sending a picture is faster on a mobile device.

Btw I agree AI can help, my issue is with greedy people salivating for money while attempting to do "AI doctor", "AI teacher" "AI physiatrist" , this important AIs should be build by non profits and correctly checked by competent people for safety. Because of $$ reasons this AIs will be marketed with more abilities then they have and the downsides will be hidden, again because of $$