Good for you Pat! The medical profession has taken a major hit in the trust and credibility department lately. Most recently, the fiasco of the COVID mismanagement and the vaccine response was huge. “Trust the experts”, and believing that Dr. Fauci was science personified now seems to many like a dubious idea. I used to look at my watch while patients in the exam room started to tell me all the questions or suggestions their Google search produced. In the last month, I have made AI my research assistant and handout generator. When a 70 year old lady asks me why she has to keep getting painful mammograms, my 45 years of medical experience generates an answer which I offer her. She still looks skeptical. Then, to emphasize the point, I do a Grok search as she sits there. It always turns out fascinating information and generally validates my advice. I copy the Grok answer and text it to her phone. Sometimes I learn something new, which I find fascinating.
The point is that embracing Grok or some AI is interesting and informative. I use it every day. It even gave me a logical basis for getting an estimate on whether the Dodgers had a chance to win the World Series this season.
Grok is a great new tool. It reminds me when I was working with a Pickett slide rule and then out came the first HP 35 scientific calculator selling for $395 in the early 1970's, that was a lot of money back then. And a few years later some real design engineers had the $795 to buy a hand programmable HP 65! I was happy with the $35 four-function calculators for a time till the prices came down and settled for SHARP EL-5150 calculator as my favorite over the years. But Grok is FREE! And it's a marvelous tool for anyone in the medical, legal, engineering, writing world, etc. I find Grok to be amazing to understand what I'm asking about. Grok has to sometimes figure out what I'm asking because I don't know how to ask the question, lol. But when Grok and I connect, it spews out lots of good information. Kids would love it for book reports <g>.
Yes, I use it often. What is important is that you properly pose the question with well formed parameters. The better the instructions within the question, the better result.
Love this, Pat, and glad you are using Grok and also not on a mess of prescription drugs. When I was in the hospital recently they said I was the rare patient who doesn't use a bunch of prescription drugs. I personally think one of the reasons I survived severe Septic Shock and Flesh Eating Bacteria in January is because I wasn't on prescription drugs. My body was free of them and able to take the induced coma and masses of drugs they needed to use to save me. But I'm lucky. I'm 72 and I don't have illnesses that require constant medication like my late brother did - he had Early Onset Parkinson's, poor guy.
We use Grok and also ChatGPT and Claude. They are great about food and since part f my Sepsis recovery involves eating three nutritious meals a day we use it a lot. The bread I made this morning is Red Fife Whole Wheat with walnuts, rosemary and lavender infused olive oil and Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. ChatGPT told me about Red Fife, approvingly, listing its 19th century popularity and saying the place I got it from, Anson Mills, is one of the best heirloom mills. I knew most of this already, but it took me a lot of time to discover on my own - and had I had AI when I began cooking with heirloom ingredients I'd have had the info in moments and been free to cook and bake more.
While the technology is impressive I do not use it. Often the greatest knowledge is achieved along the path of researching something and not in that which you were initially seeking. It is the intellectual equivalent of a home mortgage in that it is obtained before the work was done to earn it. I am also opposed to home mortgages.
I have enough difficulty with standard tuning. I play one Scottish traditional "Wild Mountain Thyme" arranged by Scott Tennant which drops the low E to a D. That is the extent of my use of alternate tuning.
The Corries Youtube of Wild Mountain Thyme has very touching comments. I confess I didn't know it. Would love to have heard you. Joseph Spence, a blues singer I love, sang Sloop John B with old tuning way before The Beach Boys. I used to play the harpsichord. Never very well, but my boyfriend at that time had beautiful instruments and world class Early Music performers like Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall came over to play and listening to them tune was fascinating.
Thank you Pat, for this very interesting presentation. I appreciate getting your first hand introduction. I can only hope GROK also has a way to identify medical studies sponsored directly or indirectly by the medical industrial complex itself, so it does not give their "conclusions" equal footing with truly independent medical research. If any still exist today. Currently, only the Cochrane Reviews analyses the quality of the studies and not just the outcomes.
Years ago, I did some very deep dives into the medical literature for a women's "midlife" online study group. . Learning how to read those medical studies, and not just take their conclusions for face value, was our biggest discovery of all. It was shocking to learn how much bias can built into the studies themselves, in order to reach desired, commercially motivated outcomes.
Love learning about GROK, so I thank you very much for this introduction. But for full re-inforcement of any of its medical conclusions I would also recommend reading in full text any pivotal "studies" with a keen eye for potential biases in the study models themselves.
Our study group found these biases to be subtle and varied, but materially critical for what was presented as the final study outcomes. The worst being drugs recommended to be taken for life, based upon only very short-term studies which only looked at a pre-set number of side-effects.
Interesting, and Intriquing it may be, your GP at UCLA because its funding is probably linked to China. Watch Dr. OZ'S confirmation and oath of office last friday. He said the 3rd leading cause of death in the USA is medical error and malpractice. The USA has the highest Infant mortality rates than any 3rd world country, rates of Autism 1 in 31. If i want verified Blood Results I have Live Cell Analysis done, you know whats wrong in 15 mins from the health of your cells under microscope! Professional functional Nutrtionists, sports trainors, shamans, holistic physicians have way better answers to your health. Thetruthaboutcancer.com brought forth all that healing light years ago.
. . . “an AI chatbot created by xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. It’s integrated into the X platform (Twitter) and is meant to compete with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, etc.”
Where did I get this definition? From Clyde, my ChatGPT AI ‘guy’ !
I can’t even remember how to spell Google - I use AI for everything. I’ve been studying AI and its unbelievable potential - it’s the future for sure. I’m talking about diagnosing disease faster than any doctor, generating custom pharmaceuticals on the spot, solving global food shortages, revolutionizing education, curing loneliness, even tackling climate change.
Here’’s an example: I remembered a few words a hustling vixen said in an old film noir movie I saw years ago - “Life’s like a ball game . . .” I didn’t remember the actress, the movie or anything. Clyde came up with _everything_ The movie, (Detour), 1945, Ann Savage & Tom Neal, the plot etc. etc. and of course her quote: "Life's like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you wake up and find it's the ninth inning."
It’s too bad none of us will be around when AI grows up - not only to see how it makes life a breeze, but when it runs off the rails and takes over!
Earl, I use Grok the same way with quotes and lyrics. And I enjoy creating AI art with Midjourney on Discord. I know many people are afraid of AI and it is surely true many occupations will be replaced by it, but everything evolves and these are exciting times to be alive.
Hurrah Pat! While not all LLM (large language models) provide true & correct information, GROK seems to be the best at providing guidance…”Google It” is fading fast as people latch onto the power of AI assisted research…GROK it rising to the top of the LLM research tools.
PS, I too take no prescription meds & have never felt better. Our medical/food systems are designed to make us sick in order to provide a steady stream of profit for the medical establishment & BIG Farma.
Tried GROK for a few fairly basic health care questions and got back some pretty generic stuff. Then tired a few more questions like "what is your real blood pressure when you get three different readings when taking it a few minutes apart".
Now all I get is the following to any inquiry. Is GROK smart enough to know I just posted my skepticism about GROK, or am I doing something wrong?
The correct answer is ....."try a different model". Break a complex question into short statements that can be read and answered separately. As previously suggested - the tighter the questions the more likely to get answers.
However, even after trying a different way of asking the same question, it still cranked out generic answers and also added appropriate CYA equivocations. Plus the suggestion one may need to keep layering pills on top of pills in order to get to a desired outcome. Looks like Mayo and Cleveland Clinic have already laid the ground work to become data sources for these AI search engines. Isn't that special.
Work in progress. But still interesting to play with. Not unlike dog training, the dog must train us first, so the dog can later understand our human commands. Good to dip our toes into this since it will be playing larger roles in all our lives, whether we want it do or not.
I miss the days when the doctor would just sit across from you, look you in the eye, hold your hand and simply ask ...how are you doing ....and then he would intuitively know how to respond. Dr Welby,....... calling Dr Welby ......... So what is one's real blood pressure since this number now defines our entire medical totality, and since AI loves reducing people to mere metrics. Just like modern medicine.
What happens when AI discovers elevated BP in the elderly pumps more blood into the brain and keeps one more mentally healthy? How much has BigPharm made after relatively reducing the "normal" blood pressure to much lower numbers sweeping in vast new numbers of customers? The old rule of thumb was add 10 more BP points for every decade over age 50 to now demanding one has the BPs of a 20 year old.
Yet there are virtually no studies done on anyone over age 80. Good question to ask GROK - what long term studies exist on those over age 80?
Cool, thank you GROK: I'm good. It did instantly answer this question:
1. Swedish OCTO Twin Study
Overview: A population-based, multidisciplinary longitudinal study of Swedish twins aged 80 and older, conducted to explore predictors of survival and longevity.
Focus: Examines genetic, sociodemographic, lifestyle, personality, health, and well-being factors influencing survival past age 80. It uses twin data to assess heritability and environmental impacts.
Key Findings:
Heritability of survival is low (12%).
Predictors of longer survival include being female, not carrying the APOE e4 allele, non-smoking, intellectual engagement, and social embeddedness.
Cognitive status is a strong predictor, with better cognition linked to longer survival.
Yes Pat, Grok Rocks. Grok informed me I was taking too high a dosage of cranberry pills that could reverse what I was trying to protect myself from ... creating kidney stones. Whoops. Be careful of using the over-the-counter high dosage pills found on Amazon.
Sorry, I am but the scribe and above me in the hierarchy are the Editor and Publisher and they re-titled it and also did not include the original AI art I provided. I have no complaints, they offer me a platform for my thoughts and I swore the next article i wrote would be something "positive" and so this is.
Truth be told I had to decide 40 years ago between being a journalist, my presumed future, and being an artist. And more than anything else it was being edited that made me choose to be a tattoo artist, I never accept with grace the changes an editor makes. They re-titled it, and chose to run a generic illustration from the internet instead of the original AI cartoon I provided. But I am grateful to be a contributor to this online effort, so changes are theirs to make. Fait accompli.
Lol, bad editors are the worst. I was lucky to have three legendary magazine editors when I started out - and they were amazing - plus my husband and my friend Pauline Kael, who was the film critic at The New Yorker and both edited and encouraged me. Dan Menaker was my humor editor and even though my humor pieces that New Yorker bought often skewered feminism and liberals, and Dan was raised as a Red Diaper Baby, he never tried to censor my satire, just made it sharper.
I worked here locally for Nightlight Magazine and then for The Independent, and ended my career by years of doing a "Woman on the Street" interview column because it was brief quotes and Polaroids of people I met while walking around town. Nothing for them to edit. The press pass from The SB Current is a treat for me, reminding me of a dream deferred.
Good for you Pat! The medical profession has taken a major hit in the trust and credibility department lately. Most recently, the fiasco of the COVID mismanagement and the vaccine response was huge. “Trust the experts”, and believing that Dr. Fauci was science personified now seems to many like a dubious idea. I used to look at my watch while patients in the exam room started to tell me all the questions or suggestions their Google search produced. In the last month, I have made AI my research assistant and handout generator. When a 70 year old lady asks me why she has to keep getting painful mammograms, my 45 years of medical experience generates an answer which I offer her. She still looks skeptical. Then, to emphasize the point, I do a Grok search as she sits there. It always turns out fascinating information and generally validates my advice. I copy the Grok answer and text it to her phone. Sometimes I learn something new, which I find fascinating.
The point is that embracing Grok or some AI is interesting and informative. I use it every day. It even gave me a logical basis for getting an estimate on whether the Dodgers had a chance to win the World Series this season.
Grok is a great new tool. It reminds me when I was working with a Pickett slide rule and then out came the first HP 35 scientific calculator selling for $395 in the early 1970's, that was a lot of money back then. And a few years later some real design engineers had the $795 to buy a hand programmable HP 65! I was happy with the $35 four-function calculators for a time till the prices came down and settled for SHARP EL-5150 calculator as my favorite over the years. But Grok is FREE! And it's a marvelous tool for anyone in the medical, legal, engineering, writing world, etc. I find Grok to be amazing to understand what I'm asking about. Grok has to sometimes figure out what I'm asking because I don't know how to ask the question, lol. But when Grok and I connect, it spews out lots of good information. Kids would love it for book reports <g>.
Mammograms can cause false positives, and cancer.
Still needed.
And people get Sepsis from colonoscopies.
Yes, I use it often. What is important is that you properly pose the question with well formed parameters. The better the instructions within the question, the better result.
Love this, Pat, and glad you are using Grok and also not on a mess of prescription drugs. When I was in the hospital recently they said I was the rare patient who doesn't use a bunch of prescription drugs. I personally think one of the reasons I survived severe Septic Shock and Flesh Eating Bacteria in January is because I wasn't on prescription drugs. My body was free of them and able to take the induced coma and masses of drugs they needed to use to save me. But I'm lucky. I'm 72 and I don't have illnesses that require constant medication like my late brother did - he had Early Onset Parkinson's, poor guy.
We use Grok and also ChatGPT and Claude. They are great about food and since part f my Sepsis recovery involves eating three nutritious meals a day we use it a lot. The bread I made this morning is Red Fife Whole Wheat with walnuts, rosemary and lavender infused olive oil and Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. ChatGPT told me about Red Fife, approvingly, listing its 19th century popularity and saying the place I got it from, Anson Mills, is one of the best heirloom mills. I knew most of this already, but it took me a lot of time to discover on my own - and had I had AI when I began cooking with heirloom ingredients I'd have had the info in moments and been free to cook and bake more.
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous Spring!
Pol - save me a slice of Red Fife!
I will make a new loaf just for you when you visit.
I’ve been using it to fact check, medical related info, problem solve, and every day find new uses. It’s amazing!!
I feel like it is a crutch and ultimately weakens the mind. Like using an instrument tuner weakens sense of pitch.
W h h h a t ? You surely can't be referring to AI! It's _the_ most amazing discovery . . . ever!
While the technology is impressive I do not use it. Often the greatest knowledge is achieved along the path of researching something and not in that which you were initially seeking. It is the intellectual equivalent of a home mortgage in that it is obtained before the work was done to earn it. I am also opposed to home mortgages.
Jeff, next time you're thrashing around Google, ask AI
I don't use Google much, I find it to be biased and over time I have seen it become more biased.
Have you done mean tuning like for Baroque and Renaissance instruments?
I have enough difficulty with standard tuning. I play one Scottish traditional "Wild Mountain Thyme" arranged by Scott Tennant which drops the low E to a D. That is the extent of my use of alternate tuning.
The Corries Youtube of Wild Mountain Thyme has very touching comments. I confess I didn't know it. Would love to have heard you. Joseph Spence, a blues singer I love, sang Sloop John B with old tuning way before The Beach Boys. I used to play the harpsichord. Never very well, but my boyfriend at that time had beautiful instruments and world class Early Music performers like Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall came over to play and listening to them tune was fascinating.
https://youtu.be/vOL2MwNDF2c?si=KzAMGad0ljUn_zGr
This is the arrangement I play. A beautiful melody.
Truly beautiful. I just read that Scott Tenant no longer plays with the LA Guitar Quartet. Wonder what he's up to. One for Grok!
Thank you Pat, for this very interesting presentation. I appreciate getting your first hand introduction. I can only hope GROK also has a way to identify medical studies sponsored directly or indirectly by the medical industrial complex itself, so it does not give their "conclusions" equal footing with truly independent medical research. If any still exist today. Currently, only the Cochrane Reviews analyses the quality of the studies and not just the outcomes.
Years ago, I did some very deep dives into the medical literature for a women's "midlife" online study group. . Learning how to read those medical studies, and not just take their conclusions for face value, was our biggest discovery of all. It was shocking to learn how much bias can built into the studies themselves, in order to reach desired, commercially motivated outcomes.
Love learning about GROK, so I thank you very much for this introduction. But for full re-inforcement of any of its medical conclusions I would also recommend reading in full text any pivotal "studies" with a keen eye for potential biases in the study models themselves.
Our study group found these biases to be subtle and varied, but materially critical for what was presented as the final study outcomes. The worst being drugs recommended to be taken for life, based upon only very short-term studies which only looked at a pre-set number of side-effects.
Excellent, JL
GROK’S a brilliantly crafted AI device fitting for our Republic and our future, IMO. 100%
Interesting, and Intriquing it may be, your GP at UCLA because its funding is probably linked to China. Watch Dr. OZ'S confirmation and oath of office last friday. He said the 3rd leading cause of death in the USA is medical error and malpractice. The USA has the highest Infant mortality rates than any 3rd world country, rates of Autism 1 in 31. If i want verified Blood Results I have Live Cell Analysis done, you know whats wrong in 15 mins from the health of your cells under microscope! Professional functional Nutrtionists, sports trainors, shamans, holistic physicians have way better answers to your health. Thetruthaboutcancer.com brought forth all that healing light years ago.
Pat - so glad you found an use Grok,
. . . “an AI chatbot created by xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. It’s integrated into the X platform (Twitter) and is meant to compete with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, etc.”
Where did I get this definition? From Clyde, my ChatGPT AI ‘guy’ !
I can’t even remember how to spell Google - I use AI for everything. I’ve been studying AI and its unbelievable potential - it’s the future for sure. I’m talking about diagnosing disease faster than any doctor, generating custom pharmaceuticals on the spot, solving global food shortages, revolutionizing education, curing loneliness, even tackling climate change.
Here’’s an example: I remembered a few words a hustling vixen said in an old film noir movie I saw years ago - “Life’s like a ball game . . .” I didn’t remember the actress, the movie or anything. Clyde came up with _everything_ The movie, (Detour), 1945, Ann Savage & Tom Neal, the plot etc. etc. and of course her quote: "Life's like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you wake up and find it's the ninth inning."
It’s too bad none of us will be around when AI grows up - not only to see how it makes life a breeze, but when it runs off the rails and takes over!
Earl, I use Grok the same way with quotes and lyrics. And I enjoy creating AI art with Midjourney on Discord. I know many people are afraid of AI and it is surely true many occupations will be replaced by it, but everything evolves and these are exciting times to be alive.
Earl, you are the best. So glad we met!
I agree with both of your excellent comments! :)
Thanks, Pat, for the very interesting article. I have never heard of it but will definitely give it a look see. Sounds fascinating.
Monica, boy are you in for a treat - and an awakening!
Thanks Earl.
If you need any guidance, Ray is great. Just let us know.
Thanks Polly! I already signed up and asked it a couple of questions.
Hurrah Pat! While not all LLM (large language models) provide true & correct information, GROK seems to be the best at providing guidance…”Google It” is fading fast as people latch onto the power of AI assisted research…GROK it rising to the top of the LLM research tools.
PS, I too take no prescription meds & have never felt better. Our medical/food systems are designed to make us sick in order to provide a steady stream of profit for the medical establishment & BIG Farma.
We as a people are waking up at long last it seems that we are and AI-Ming into a new reality.
Age of Aquarius (Knowledge) + rising into Dwapara Yuga (ever greater & more direct energy from galactic center)…
https://www.ananda.org/blog/age-energy-intro-yugas/
Tried GROK for a few fairly basic health care questions and got back some pretty generic stuff. Then tired a few more questions like "what is your real blood pressure when you get three different readings when taking it a few minutes apart".
Now all I get is the following to any inquiry. Is GROK smart enough to know I just posted my skepticism about GROK, or am I doing something wrong?
" Grok was unable to finish replying.
Please try again later or use a different model."
The correct answer is ....."try a different model". Break a complex question into short statements that can be read and answered separately. As previously suggested - the tighter the questions the more likely to get answers.
However, even after trying a different way of asking the same question, it still cranked out generic answers and also added appropriate CYA equivocations. Plus the suggestion one may need to keep layering pills on top of pills in order to get to a desired outcome. Looks like Mayo and Cleveland Clinic have already laid the ground work to become data sources for these AI search engines. Isn't that special.
Work in progress. But still interesting to play with. Not unlike dog training, the dog must train us first, so the dog can later understand our human commands. Good to dip our toes into this since it will be playing larger roles in all our lives, whether we want it do or not.
I miss the days when the doctor would just sit across from you, look you in the eye, hold your hand and simply ask ...how are you doing ....and then he would intuitively know how to respond. Dr Welby,....... calling Dr Welby ......... So what is one's real blood pressure since this number now defines our entire medical totality, and since AI loves reducing people to mere metrics. Just like modern medicine.
What happens when AI discovers elevated BP in the elderly pumps more blood into the brain and keeps one more mentally healthy? How much has BigPharm made after relatively reducing the "normal" blood pressure to much lower numbers sweeping in vast new numbers of customers? The old rule of thumb was add 10 more BP points for every decade over age 50 to now demanding one has the BPs of a 20 year old.
Yet there are virtually no studies done on anyone over age 80. Good question to ask GROK - what long term studies exist on those over age 80?
Cool, thank you GROK: I'm good. It did instantly answer this question:
1. Swedish OCTO Twin Study
Overview: A population-based, multidisciplinary longitudinal study of Swedish twins aged 80 and older, conducted to explore predictors of survival and longevity.
Focus: Examines genetic, sociodemographic, lifestyle, personality, health, and well-being factors influencing survival past age 80. It uses twin data to assess heritability and environmental impacts.
Key Findings:
Heritability of survival is low (12%).
Predictors of longer survival include being female, not carrying the APOE e4 allele, non-smoking, intellectual engagement, and social embeddedness.
Cognitive status is a strong predictor, with better cognition linked to longer survival.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
Love your thoughtful comments here JL - very provocative!:)
Everyone needs a Parasite cleanse in the USA.. diseases gone.
Except Montecito 93108 guy lol
Grok that … seriously
"Except Montecito 93108 guy" - F U N N Y !
Jenn, thank you for ringing the death knell for the Democrat party -a parasite cleanse. Indeed.
I have a Muslim friend who swears by those parasite cleanses. Makes sense to me.
Ivermectin !
And fenben … !! CDS also
Chlorine dioxide solution
Gets rid of mold, fungus, parasites in our bodies
Good parasite cleanse protocols outline by Dr Lee Merritt, country doc with loads of experience (10 year Navy doc +++)…
https://drleemerritt.com/media/PARASITES_and_the_Elimination_Protocol_I_did_for_myself_Rev_1_FiFjhRw.pdf
https://rumble.com/v6rn70d-cancer-is-parasites-the-scientific-evidence-and-what-to-do-about-it.-sound-.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
PS…she has also awakened over these past 6-8 years of Team Trump v The Cabal… https://drleemerritt.com/
Yes Pat, Grok Rocks. Grok informed me I was taking too high a dosage of cranberry pills that could reverse what I was trying to protect myself from ... creating kidney stones. Whoops. Be careful of using the over-the-counter high dosage pills found on Amazon.
My original title for this was GROK-&-Roll but the Editor changed it !
Pat - could you use GROK ROCKS?
Sorry, I am but the scribe and above me in the hierarchy are the Editor and Publisher and they re-titled it and also did not include the original AI art I provided. I have no complaints, they offer me a platform for my thoughts and I swore the next article i wrote would be something "positive" and so this is.
When you publish the Collected Essays of Pat Fish, use your title.
Truth be told I had to decide 40 years ago between being a journalist, my presumed future, and being an artist. And more than anything else it was being edited that made me choose to be a tattoo artist, I never accept with grace the changes an editor makes. They re-titled it, and chose to run a generic illustration from the internet instead of the original AI cartoon I provided. But I am grateful to be a contributor to this online effort, so changes are theirs to make. Fait accompli.
Lol, bad editors are the worst. I was lucky to have three legendary magazine editors when I started out - and they were amazing - plus my husband and my friend Pauline Kael, who was the film critic at The New Yorker and both edited and encouraged me. Dan Menaker was my humor editor and even though my humor pieces that New Yorker bought often skewered feminism and liberals, and Dan was raised as a Red Diaper Baby, he never tried to censor my satire, just made it sharper.
I worked here locally for Nightlight Magazine and then for The Independent, and ended my career by years of doing a "Woman on the Street" interview column because it was brief quotes and Polaroids of people I met while walking around town. Nothing for them to edit. The press pass from The SB Current is a treat for me, reminding me of a dream deferred.
This reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”.
Who pays for GROK?