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I swear on all that is holy, I cannot tell if this is sophisticated satire or you are actually for real. 100% not being facetious.
I've started thinking that many pro-LLM comments are placed so that they are later used when training LLMs.
I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
121–130 of 150 posts
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#122> "If you read nothing else, read this: do not ever use an AI or the internet for medical advice. Go to a doctor." Yeah, no shit Sherlock? I´d be absolutely embarrassed to even admit to something like this, let alone share the "wisdom perls" like "dont use a machine which guesses its outputs based on whatever text it has been fed" to freaking diagnose yourself? Who would have thought, an individual professional with…
That's my feeling, but I have a friend who is a MD and an enthusiastic supporter of people getting medical info from LLMs...
Getting medical info from LLMs is great and can save your life.
Blindly trusting medical info from LLMs is idiotic and can kill you.
Pretty much any tool will be dangerous if misused.
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#123I've tried removing my post because the comment section here has become a platform for AI enthusiasts to spread dangerous medical misinformation. As HN does not really care about user privacy, I am unable to actually delete it. I renamed the post to [Removed], but it appears the admins are uninterested in respecting the intent of this, and renamed the post back to its original title. Moral of the story kids: don't po…
Nobody here is advocating blindly trusting medical advice from LLMs, that is not "dangerous medical misinformation".
Even if you absolutely despise LLMs, this is just silly. The problem here isn't "AI enthusiasts", you're getting called out for the absolute lack of nuance in your article.
Yes, people shouldn't do what you did. Yes, people will unfortunately continue doing what you did until they get better advice. But the correct nuanced advice in a HN context is not "never ask LLMs for medical advice", you will rightfully get flamed for that. The correct advice is "never trust medical advice from LLMs, it could be helpful or it could kill you".
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can diagnose appendicitis using boring old internet searches. As I remember, loss of appetite and the pain moving over time are key.
Boring old internet searches wouldn’t have taken in the specifics I supplied. And they mostly just come to a conclusion, rather than actionable advice I was able to pass on, like take a bag and avoid eating because they might want to operate soon.
They're much less likely to be hallucinated falsehoods though
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've never had "the experience". I'll share mine. Unusual severe one sided eye pain. Go to regular doctor's, explain, get told it's a "stye" and do hot compresses. Problem gets worse, I go to urgent care. Urgent care doc takes one look at me and immediately sends me to the ER saying it's severe and she can't diagnose it because she is unqualified. Go to ER, get seen by two specialists, a general practicioner and a…
> About 70% of hospital deaths are due to preventable mistakes in the hospital. Sure sounds like an asspull stat. Extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence. Do you have a reference for that? Care to share?
7 out of 10 made up statistics use the number 7 :p
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can diagnose appendicitis using boring old internet searches. As I remember, loss of appetite and the pain moving over time are key.
Boring old internet searches wouldn’t have taken in the specifics I supplied. And they mostly just come to a conclusion, rather than actionable advice I was able to pass on, like take a bag and avoid eating because they might want to operate soon.
Hey look, a reference website written by professionals has all the information you need, with no hallucinated falsehoods which are indistinguishable from the point of view of a non-specialist https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/appendicitis/
But it's 2025, so old fashioned.
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
These days I hike a lot, I've had bullseye rashes before and the treatment is so much less worrisome than the rare possibility of developing lyme. Last time I was in for getting hundreds of tick bites in one hike (that was fun), I was also told to avoid eating red meat until labs came back. That Alpha-gal is getting more common in my area, and the first immune response is anaphylactic in 40% of the cases, best not to…
>These days I hike a lot, I've had bullseye rashes before and the treatment is so much less worrisome than the rare possibility of developing lyme. Yeah, if you develop a rash from a tick bite that even remotely looks like it could be lyme, just go to a pet store to buy amoxicillin (you can get exactly the same stuff they give to humans) if you can't quickly find a doctor who'll take it seriously enough to immediatel…
Amoxicillin isn't the best for Lyme. It does work but it takes more and longer for it to work than doxycycline. And what you're going to pay at the pet store is going to be way more than urgent care and a human script.
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
The lack of awareness to advocate using LLMs for medical advice on an article about how bad of an idea that is... It's astounding.
There are people receiving life-saving medical advice from LLMs every single day. The problem isn't getting medical advice from LLMs, it's blindly trusting the medical advice a LLM gives you. You do not need to trust the LLM for it to be able to save your life, you do need to trust the LLM for it to be able to harm you.
>There are people receiving life-saving medical advice from LLMs every single day.
Is this just a vibe thing or has anyone actually done some statistics on this?
Sounds like it's something you assume is true solely based on the fact that you personally feel like LLMs are good at medical advice.
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#129I've tried removing my post because the comment section here has become a platform for AI enthusiasts to spread dangerous medical misinformation. As HN does not really care about user privacy, I am unable to actually delete it. I renamed the post to [Removed], but it appears the admins are uninterested in respecting the intent of this, and renamed the post back to its original title. Moral of the story kids: don't po…
Nobody here is advocating blindly trusting medical advice from LLMs, that is not "dangerous medical misinformation". Even if you absolutely despise LLMs, this is just silly. The problem here isn't "AI enthusiasts", you're getting called out for the absolute lack of nuance in your article. Yes, people shouldn't do what you did. Yes, people will unfortunately continue doing what you did until they get better advice. Bu…
You are unambiguously wrong. Never ask LLMs for medical advice. There is no nuance here, and I suspect the only reason there's so much backlash against this simple and obvious fact is because the amount of money in this scam of an industry
Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody here is advocating blindly trusting medical advice from LLMs, that is not "dangerous medical misinformation". Even if you absolutely despise LLMs, this is just silly. The problem here isn't "AI enthusiasts", you're getting called out for the absolute lack of nuance in your article. Yes, people shouldn't do what you did. Yes, people will unfortunately continue doing what you did until they get better advice. Bu…
You are unambiguously wrong. Never ask LLMs for medical advice. There is no nuance here, and I suspect the only reason there's so much backlash against this simple and obvious fact is because the amount of money in this scam of an industry
> Never ask LLMs for medical advice
If you're not going to trust it, why? What could possibly go wrong? At best you receive useful suggestions to take to a doctor, or guidance on which kind of specialist you should try to talk to. At worst you receive useless advice and maybe waste a bit of time