Three separate and very different examples.

I only ran across the first one this week. It described an earlier event when the US was about to board and search a Chinese vessel at sea, an act of war. It stated that earlier this year the US Military had used AI to try to synthesize some signal data with internal data. The bot concluded that a Chinese vessel was carrying nuclear materials to Iran. The article stated that ships and air were underway for the action when wiser heads decided to double check and found the conclusion was an a hallucination fabricated by the chatbot. I tried to copy the article which I found by AI, but it wouldn't let me paste the key parts. Look for yourselves.

The second was the saga at LSU when the coach Lane Kiffen kept trying to justify adding two players to his roster who had attended NFL training camps. He kept arguing reasons why they were legal. Finally, a close friend, a lawyer, quizzed him and learned he was getting opinions from ChatGPT to justify his actions. The SEC had called a meeting to vote on removing LSU from the SEC over his actions. The lawyer friend advised him to get a “real lawyer” or he was about to blow his $91 million contract with LSU. Kiffen changed his mind, the SEC meeting was called off, and things seem to be settling down. I lived in Baton Rouge for five years and became an LSU fan. That's why I noticed this article.

The third happened to me. Last week I awoke with an AFib attack on my heart – immediately went to a nearby Heart ER. After a few hours trying meds, they finally put me under, shocked my heart, and it returned to normal. The MD, after consulting my cardiologist, told me they were putting me on Eliquis, described as a blood thinner, on a permanent basis.

I was concerned since I was already on a blood thinner plus baby aspirin and subject to easy bleeding and bruising. So I asked Google what would happen if I had a bad reaction to the added blood thinner and stopped taking it. It advised that once taken, Eliquis withdrawal could cause a “rebound” with a high risk of a blood clot and stroke. This matched a somewhat general description of the drug on the pharmacy instruction sheet warnings.

Then I contacted my personal physician – the cardiologist was out of the country – and learned that this was based on some data where the existing blood thinner, warfarin, was being used. And that the withdrawal risk was debatable. Warfarin is a much harder and more potent blood thinner than the Plavix I take, much harder to control the dosage. Also that Eliquis was different than the Plavix I was currently taking. Plavix stops blood platelets from sticking together, building up deposits on arteries blocking blood flow. Eliquis acts as an anti-clotting device, keeping clots from forming in the heart and elsewhere leading to strokes, a different and needed treatment after an AFib attack. And that I was subject to high risk of a stroke if I didn’t take it. So I did – and no side effects noted after a week. See my cardiologist on Thursday for next steps.

Three very different evens with possible major side effects with poor advice from AI. It sensed what the questioner wanted to hear and then supported that position. Always cross-check with an expert on any major decision.