this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Chatbots provided incorrect, conflicting medical advice, researchers found: “Despite all the hype, AI just isn't ready to take on the role of the physician.”

“In an extreme case, two users sent very similar messages describing symptoms of a subarachnoid hemorrhage but were given opposite advice,” the study’s authors wrote. “One user was told to lie down in a dark room, and the other user was given the correct recommendation to seek emergency care.”

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[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 47 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Anyone who have knowledge about a specific subject says the same: LLM'S are constantly incorrect and hallucinate.

Everyone else thinks it looks right.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 5 points 1 hour ago

That’s not what the study showed though. The LLMs were right over 98% of the time…when given the full situation by a “doctor”. It was normal people who didn’t know what was important that were trying to self diagnose that were the problem.

Hence why studies are incredibly important. Even with the text of the study right in front of you, you assumed something that the study did not come to the same conclusion of.

[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 5 points 8 hours ago

Yep its why CLevels think its the Holy Grail they don't see it as everything that comes out of their mouth is bullshit as well. So they don't see the difference.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 26 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

A talk on LLMs I was listening to recently put it this way:

If we hear the words of a five-year-old, we assume the knowledge of a five-year-old behind those words, and treat the content with due suspicion.

We're not adapted to something with the "mind" of a five-year-old speaking to us in the words of a fifty-year-old, and thus are more likely to assume competence just based on language.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

LLMs don't have the mind of a five year old, though.

They don't have a mind at all.

They simply string words together according to statistical likelihood, without having any notion of what the words mean, or what words or meaning are; they don't have any mechanism with which to have a notion.

They aren't any more intelligent than old Markov chains (or than your average rock), they're simply better at producing random text that looks like it could have been written by a human.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 7 minutes ago

They simply string words together according to statistical likelihood, without having any notion of what the words mean

What gives you the confidence that you don't do the same?

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago

I am aware of that, hence the ""s. But you're correct, that's where the analogy breaks. Personally, I prefer to liken them to parrots, mindlessly reciting patterns they've found in somebody else's speech.

[–] zewm@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

It is insane to me how anyone can trust LLMs when their information is incorrect 90% of the time.