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Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

arxiv.org

31–40 of 48 posts

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#31
post #7
post #3

I find the healthcare applications of this stuff so interesting. On the one hand, there are SO many reasons using LLMs to help people make health decisions should be an utterly terrible idea, to the point of immorality: - They hallucinate - They can't do mathematical calculations - They're incredibly good at being convincing, no matter what junk they are outputting And yet, despite being very aware of these limitatio…

I have been saying this for months for deep learning in general (and now the new hype in LLMs) in high risk situations such as medical, legal and financial advice and even transportation. The only common use-case which makes sense is summarization and even then, a human expert ends up reviewing the output before post it anyway. > There are plenty of medical topics which people find embarrassing, and would prefer to -…

People take pills from known criminals, with high risk of fentanyl OD, just for fun.

Yes, I think people would indeed take pills prescribed by AI, just make it a robot wearing a lab coat.

Also pilots! I mean, pilots kill themselves and a planeload of people more than you think. Of course people would take black box ai that works.

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most doctors/vets I've seen recently are just massively overbooked. You wait 3 hours, then you have 4 minutes of conversation time for one (out of multiple) ailments before you’re booted out the door. Its like you're on an assembly line and the workers can't even keep up.

Why are you waiting 3 hours? Are you going to an urgent care or ER?

Most people cannot see a doctor for weeks. So after that it's uc or er.

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to explain why it is so dangerous for people to self diagnose

I assumed it was obvious like “only a fool has himself as a lawyer.” Would you do your own code review? It’s impossible to be objective regarding your own health. It’s an ethics violation and sanctionable for physicians to do so for themselves.

With the wrong doctors it's downright dangerous to see a doctor.

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most doctors/vets I've seen recently are just massively overbooked. You wait 3 hours, then you have 4 minutes of conversation time for one (out of multiple) ailments before you’re booted out the door. Its like you're on an assembly line and the workers can't even keep up.

Why are you waiting 3 hours? Are you going to an urgent care or ER?

Well...

- I waited ~8 hours in an ER with my mother, who had horrible gut pain that turned out to be a ruptured appendix, before they finally took her in, with an urgent emergency referral from an urgent care center we visited earlier.

- I waited 2 hours in a specialist's office waiting room, and I arrived on time. No explanation...

- We waited about an hour and a half at the vet, in a room by ourselves with our dog. Again, we were on time, but they were apologetic when the vet finally came in.

These are the more extraordinary circumstances, but definitely not the only ones (especialy at the vet).

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#35
post #3

I find the healthcare applications of this stuff so interesting. On the one hand, there are SO many reasons using LLMs to help people make health decisions should be an utterly terrible idea, to the point of immorality: - They hallucinate - They can't do mathematical calculations - They're incredibly good at being convincing, no matter what junk they are outputting And yet, despite being very aware of these limitatio…

Whatever else its ills, the bot actually will pay attention to the tokens you're submitting to it to formulate its answer. That puts it well ahead of a majority of the doctors I've seen over the years. I say this without snark- it is simply true. I should also mention that a good quarter of the medical care folks who have assisted me have gone above and beyond in exceptional ways. It is a field of extremes.

Attention is all you need, doctors.

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to explain why it is so dangerous for people to self diagnose

I assumed it was obvious like “only a fool has himself as a lawyer.” Would you do your own code review? It’s impossible to be objective regarding your own health. It’s an ethics violation and sanctionable for physicians to do so for themselves.

Yes, I review my own code all the time. Right before commit, I read through the diff carefully. Then of course my team reviews the code further.

The same approach works for my health, I MUST review and evaluate my health, it's just not reasonable to expect every single human in the world to go to a doctor every other week. If I come to suspect I have a serious illness, I take it to the next level of review - a doctor. You are painting a very dogmatic, black-and-white picture that cannot include this kind of nuanced approach

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lots of people are smart enough to learn and understand the bits of knowledge they need to accurately self-diagnose and understand tradeoffs of treatment options, then use a medical professional as a consultant to fill in the gaps and validate mental models. This is incredibly dangerous, lots of people are smart enough that they can research questions about their condition/care to discuss with their medical profess…

You forgot to explain why it is so dangerous for people to self diagnose

The human body is way more complex than you think, even if you take this warning into account. Being confidently wrong about your own health based on random tidbits you know and ignoring the vast amount of knowledge you don't have is incredibly dangerous.

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to explain why it is so dangerous for people to self diagnose

The human body is way more complex than you think, even if you take this warning into account. Being confidently wrong about your own health based on random tidbits you know and ignoring the vast amount of knowledge you don't have is incredibly dangerous.

You are arguing against a strawman of your own making

Re: Large Language Models Are Few-Shot Health Learners

#40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human body is way more complex than you think, even if you take this warning into account. Being confidently wrong about your own health based on random tidbits you know and ignoring the vast amount of knowledge you don't have is incredibly dangerous.

You are arguing against a strawman of your own making

No, I'm telling you why people who don't have training and a decades worth of education self diagnosing is dangerous. You're just deflecting because you don't like how obvious the answer is.
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