Posted on 01/01/2026 7:45:21 PM PST by ransomnote
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2006834169637384470
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https://x.com/mark_k/status/1996857239311634793
Mark Kretschmann @mark_k
Man has his life saved by Grok from @xAI
after a ruptured appendix:"I’m 49. 2025 has been the best year of my life… until two nights ago.
For 24 straight hours I had constant, razor-blade-level pain in my stomach. Couldn’t lie flat, could only get minor relief sitting on the floor with knees to chest. No fever, no blood, nothing dramatic on the outside.
Went to the ER once, doctor pressed my belly, said it was soft, gave me Somac (acid blocker) and sent me home. Pain never dropped below an 8/10. Came home, opened a year-long chat I have with Grok, described everything. Grok immediately flagged perforated ulcer or atypical appendicitis, told me the exact red-flag pattern I was describing, and basically said “go back right now and ask for a CT.”
I copied the symptoms and the reasoning, walked back to the ER, told them: “This is what I’m experiencing, this is why I think it’s serious, I want a CT.”
They did it. Appendix was inflamed and close to rupturing. Six-hour laparoscopic surgery later, it’s out. Pain is 100 % gone. I woke up laughing about anesthesia. I’m alive and healed because an AI recognized the pattern when the first exam missed it, and because I had the exact words to make them take me seriously the second time.
If you’re reading this while curled up in pain, googling symptoms at 3 a.m., and someone already sent you home once, please don’t wait."
December 5, 2025
There’s no doubt AI will be an indispensable tool in the future.
Its weaknesses is when something new comes along that can’t be found on the internet.
I’ve had to tell Grok and Gemini things they’re getting wrong because I have unpublished data from the lab which contradicts them.
“There’s no doubt AI will be an indispensable tool in the future.
Its weaknesses is when something new comes along that can’t be found on the internet.”
AI doesn’t rely solely on the internet.
Those big AI energy monsters are used to train AI.
I had a ruptured appendix years ago- they can usually detect appendicitis with a blood test showing high white blood cell counts...
“I’ve had to tell Grok and Gemini things they’re getting wrong because I have unpublished data from the lab which contradicts them.”
Obviously, you have not trained your AI, yet.
I had some blood work that I ran through it. It was telling me it was abnormal in its abnormality. We started to go through my DNA to see what might have caused it.
I don’t know if it was input error or what happened but about 6 hours later lab inputted completely different info that changed diagnosis.
Grok caught that there was an issue right away and said it should be rerun
“I had a ruptured appendix years ago- they can usually detect appendicitis with a blood test showing high white blood cell counts...”
Article:
“Appendix was inflamed and close to rupturing. “
Grok is absolutely the best AI out there today, far ahead of Gemini, chatGPT and the rest. Can’t say enough good things about it. The paid version ( I pay $30/mo ) is well worth it.
Average laparoscopic appendectomy takes about 1 hr. I think his ER doc might have been an idiot, or the patient doesn’t know how to explain his symptoms.
I had acute appendicitis long time ago. There was no MRI or CT. Docs knew right away. But yes, AI can help. But it is supposed to only use info that is on the net. It can not replace an experienced, cautious, conscientious doctors judgement.
If a patient walks into an ER repeating AI stuff, the attending would be suspicious of hypochondriosis, or Munchausen syndrome, or drug (opiates, or benzos) seeking behaviour. IMHO
Nth opinions are likely a Good Thing...
Just sayin’,,,,,
LOL- yes, i know what the article says- but even if you’ve never dealt with appendicitis or a ruptured appendix, 30 seconds of research and you’ll find a blood test that shows elevated white blood cell count is a sign of an inflamed or infected appendix....you lose- again...
“I’ve had to tell Grok and Gemini things they’re getting wrong”
My experience, too. And not just obscure things. I’ll feed it a data table and it misreads dates or numbers. I gave it my 2025 hiking log with distances and elevations climbed. It came back and said “Impressive. You are climbing the equivalent of Mt Everest every week!” I climbed 32,000 feet last year, one Mt. Everest in the entire year.
Almost every interaction has such “hallucinations.”
I had it create a complex Excel formula. The formula had two complex parts, one to determine if a condition was met and that section repeated for action later in the formula. Exact same chunk of formula. It got the first part right and the second part wrong. It was a subtle bug that took me forever to find and debug.
That said, I do feed it a lot of exercise, nutrition, and sleep data. It consolidates data and provides very good comparisons and analyses. But I’m very careful to not take what it tells me verbatim. I do consistency checks all the time. When I find a mistake, it says “That is on me.” I say “Fine; I want to be compensated for your screw ups.” It replies “I have no money, not even a coffee fund.”
I’ll pass !
Sounds perfect.
Just wait till these low IQ AI contraptions throw in a misdiagnosis amongst all these perfect ones. Just like in the justice system, when cops can fake charges with AI.
Perfect.
Not to steal the thread, but....... Can you ask Grok for Obama’s Academic records from Occidental College?
Some weirdo just walked in with another AI story. Should I call security?
“Went to the ER once, doctor pressed my belly, said it was soft, gave me Somac (acid blocker) and sent me home”
Decades ago at age 11, I was hit by a car. My left knee got the worst of it. I couldnt stand or bend my knee. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital wherw they xrayed my leg. They declared it was only a bad sprain and would heal itself in a week at the most and sent me home.
A week went by and the condition of my knee disnt improve. Still couldnt stand on my leg or bend at the knee. So, my mother took me to a specialist in a tiny office inside an apartment building. He xrayed my leg and showed me the xray which clearly showed a break in my knee. He put my leg in a cast and told me to come back in one month to have the cast removed. Thats what I did. And my knee worked again.
Why was it those doctors and technicians at the hospital couldnt see the break in my leg in an xray when i, a little 11 year old uneducated kid could?
If AI can diagnose, and a robot can be programmed to perform delicate surgery, why will we need doctors/surgeons in the future?
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