The study sought to find out if text generated by ChatGPT under the supervision of a healthcare expert was as trustworthy as text generated by an expert themselves. To do so, the study looked at 116 parents aged 18 to 65.

“When we began this research, it was right after ChatGPT first launched—we had concerns about how parents would use this new, easy method to gather health information for their children,” lead author Calissa Leslie-Miller said. “Parents often turn to the internet for advice, so we wanted to understand what using ChatGPT would look like and what we should be worried about.”

Participants were asked to complete a baseline assessment of their behavioral intentions regarding pediatric healthcare topics. Afterwards, participants rated text generated by either an expert or by ChatGPT under supervision of an expert.

The Study’s Shocking Findings

The study found that engineered ChatGPT is capable of impacting behavioral intentions for medication, sleep, and diet decision-making.

It also discovered that there was “little distinction” between ChatGPT and expert content when it came to perceived morality, trustworthiness, expertise, accuracy, and reliance. However, when those differences were present, ChatGPT text scored a higher rating in trustworthiness and accuracy than expert information.

Participants also indicated that they would be more likely to rely on ChatGPT information than on information from an expert.

“This outcome was surprising to us, especially since the study took place early in ChatGPT’s availability,” Leslie-Miller said. “We’re starting to see that AI is being integrated in ways that may not be immediately obvious, and people may not even recognize when they’re reading AI-generated text versus expert content.”

Why the Study’s Findings Raise Concerns

On top of being surprising, the study’s findings are a cause of concern for researchers.

“During the study, some early iterations of the AI output contained incorrect information. This is concerning because, as we know, AI tools like ChatGPT are prone to ‘hallucinations’—errors that occur when the system lacks sufficient context,” Leslie-Miller said. “In child health, where the consequences can be significant, it’s crucial that we address this issue. We’re concerned that people may increasingly rely on AI for health advice without proper expert oversight.”

Leslie-Miller went on to note that, despite how participants rated the texts, “there are still differences in the trustworthiness of sources.” With that in mind, Leslie-Miller said that, if parents do turn to AI for information, they should look for a source “that’s integrated into a system with a layer of expertise that’s double-checked.”

“I believe AI has a lot of potential to be harnessed. Specifically, it is possible to generate information at a much higher volume than before,” she said. “But it’s important to recognize that AI is not an expert, and the information it provides doesn’t come from an expert source.”

The post Parents Trust ChatGPT More Than Doctors, New Study Finds appeared first on VICE.

Paul, a 62-year-old engineer, was diagnosed with glioblastoma brain cancer in December 2023 after he sought help for a severe headache. He underwent surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, only to find out his tumor had returned in July.

Following that devastating news, Paul became the first patient to enter in to a new trial, CITADEL-123.

“It was good to have another option. I was fully expecting the tumor to return due to its aggressive nature,” Paul said. “I know the outcome isn’t great and I was happy to explore anything else.”

The trial involved having a small medical device called an Ommaya reservoir implanted under the scalp. The device was connected to a small tube into the tumor area.

Through that tube, doctors are able to inject the drug ATT001 into the tumor. The drug delivers small amounts of radioactivity. It is thought to damage and/or kill the tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.

The treatment begins 14 days after surgery. Weekly injections follow for the next four to six weeks. For Paul, the results were incredible as his tumor shrank by half.

“I’m very pleased that this clinical trial is now open. Potentially this is a very powerful approach and I’m already extremely happy with the results from the first patient,” Dr. Paul Mulholland, the oncologist running the trial, said. “I’m also very proud at how my colleagues in neurosurgery and nuclear medicine have come together as a team to deliver a really novel trial.”

Paul Looks Ahead to the Future

While Paul is aware that is tumor “may still reoccur,” he said the study provides “some hope and longevity” for patients with similar diagnoses.

“If this trial is successful it would indicate to me that it will now, perhaps, become manageable instead of treatable until the normal expected end of life looms,” he said. “… Even if it does not directly benefit me, I have the hope that it will feed into the knowledge bank for glioblastoma and other brain cancers and help other sufferers in the future.”

“I’m not frightened by any of this. We are all dealt a hand of cards and you don’t know which ones you are going to get,” Paul added. “It will be wonderful if this treatment helps me and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I am more than happy, even it if doesn’t benefit me, it may benefit someone else down the line. So I have got nothing to lose and everything to hope for.”

The post Man’s Brain Tumor Shrinks by Half Amid Clinical Trial appeared first on VICE.

As of today, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, McDonald’s franchise owners can now use third parties to legally diagnose and repair their busted ice cream machines.

If you’re a snobby healthy person who has never heard of the McDonald’s ice cream machine conundrum, here’s a quick history. McDonald’s serves ice cream products. The machine that spits out those ice cream products is a worthless piece of shit that’s constantly breaking. On top of that, the machines are notoriously disgusting, so they need to be rigorously cleaned of bacteria in a long and complicated process that requires the near-complete disassembly of the machine.

All of that led to a fairly common scenario. People would go to McDonald’s hoping to get a McFlurry and would be turned away because the machine was “down.” If you’ve ever had a McFlurry for McDonald’s, you may not have realized it, but you were actually one of the luckiest people on earth that day. You were there in the tiny window where the McFlurry machine was operating.

One of the things that made it difficult to repair these constantly breaking machines was section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which barred franchise owners from getting third parties to fix the busted machines. The only company that was allowed to bypass the machines’ software locks was its manufacturer, a company called Taylor.

Every three years though, the Federal Trade Commission adds exceptions to the DMCA, and one of those exceptions this year is putting the power of McFlurry machine repair in the hands of McDonald’s franchise owners. We can all thank a nonprofit public interest group Public Knowledge and DIY repair site iFixit for paving the way for us all to hopefully start getting McFlurry’s when the craving hits.  

The post McDonald’s Can Legally Fix Its Own McFlurry Machines Now appeared first on VICE.

The specimens were discovered on Port Island in the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark in March. Upon realizing that the find contained suspected vertebrate fossils, the Development Bureau (DEVB) commissioned experts from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP). Those experts were tasked with conducting a field investigation, studying fossil specimens, recommending management plans, and discussing follow-up actions.

The DEVB and IVPP, as well as the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), conducted site visits to Port Island to collect specimens which contain suspected vertebrate fossils.

The specimens were later identified as bone fossils of a large aged dinosaur dating back to the Cretaceous period. That period happened is between145 and 66 million years ago. The species of the dinosaur has yet to be confirmed. Further research is planned in conjunction with the AMO, AFCD, IVPP, and universities in Hong Kong.

Bernadette Linn, the Secretary for Development, said that the find is of great significance. She added that the fossils will provide new evidence for research on palaeoecology in Hong Kong.

Beginning Oct. 25, the fossils will be on display at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. By the end of the year, the Chinese government will complete a temporary workshop and exhibition space. The build will allow the public to observe the experts’ work with the fossils.

In the wake of the exciting find, the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation announced the closure of the entire area of Port Island within Plover Cove (Extension) Country Park until further notice.

While the find is the first in Hong Kong, other dinosaur fossils have been found throughout mainland China. In fact, according to London’s Natural History Museum, 58 species have been discovered in the country. In 2018, Smithsonian Magazine even dubbed China “the new epicenter of paleontology.”

The post Dinosaur Fossils Discovered in Hong Kong for the First Time appeared first on VICE.

Scott Evans, assistant professor of geology in the Florida State University Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, and a team of paleontologists discovered and identified the early marine animal from around over 550 million years ago, according to FSU News. 

The fossil’s appearance is quite fascinating, with its circular, flattened shape and strange question-mark pattern on its surface—and it’s helping scientists better understand how life has evolved on Earth.

As they studied the “blob,” experts realized it was a fossil of one of the first animals capable of moving on its own. The scientists found over a dozen of them, as well as other trace fossils.

“One of the most exciting moments was when we flipped over a rock, brushed it off, and spotted what was obviously a trace fossil behind a Quaestio specimen—a clear sign that the organism was motile; it could move,” said Harvard University evolutionary biologist Ian Hughes. 

“The animal is a little smaller than the size of your palm and has a question-mark shape in the middle of its body that distinguishes between the left and right side,” added Scott Evans, assistant professor of geology in the Florida State University Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. “There aren’t other fossils from this time that have shown this type of organization so definitively.”

The left-right asymmetry is an “important sign of evolutionary development,” according to FSU News.

Researchers also compared the Quaestio creature to a small marine Roomba vacuum. You know, the robotic kind that rolls aimlessly around your home, sucking up any fallen crumbs as you eat your takeout and stream your favorite shows? Only, Quaestio would roam the seafloor, consuming nutrients from microscopic algae, bacteria, and other organisms. Pretty sick.

“We’re still finding new things every time we dig,” Hughes said. “Even though these were some of the first animal ecosystems in the world, they were already very diverse. We see an explosion of life really early on in the history of animal evolution.”

The post They Found a 550-Million-Year-Old Fleshy Blob with a Question Mark on It appeared first on VICE.

This system will automatically and audibly flag someone who is trying to board before their time. How embarrassing for them?

“We are in the early phase of testing new technology used during the boarding process,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Post.

Basically, if a passenger tries to board early with a different group, scanning their boarding pass will cause a specific beep, and the screen will show the gate agent their actual group number. In other words, they’ll get called the fuck out—publically. 

“The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease and helps improve the boarding experience by providing greater visibility into boarding progress for our team,” American Airlines revealed.

The New York Post reported that the boarding system is being rolled out/tested at Albuquerque International Sunport Airport (ABQ) and the Tucson International Airport (TUS).

In the American Airlines subreddit, several users stated they’ve already witnessed this new technology firsthand. 

“Was flying out of ABQ yesterday and saw the test boarding system for the first time,” one person shared. “As usual, group 1 was flooded with people but several people ahead of me when trying to scan their boarding pass got an error beep. The gate agent proceeded to tell them ‘sir/mamm you are group 5, please step aside.’ Was awesome to see this enforced and looked like it was system driven vs gate agent having to make that call.”

“I saw this in action yesterday. It was great,” another commented. “I saw about 5 people get punted out of line for trying to board before their group was called. About time!”

Finally, there seems to be a simple yet savage solution for the ever-infuriating gate lice. Let’s hope this gets rolled out across all airports soon.

The post American Airlines’ New Boarding System Calls Out ‘Gate Lice’ appeared first on VICE.

Ai-Da, created in 2019 by UK-based art dealer and gallery owner Aidan Meller, draws and paints with a robotic arm, various algorithms, and cameras in its eyes. It contributed a physical mixed-media piece to Sotheby’s upcoming “Digital Art Day” auction, where the auctioneer hopes to find a buyer in the $120,000 to $180,000 range. 

The work is a portrait of British mathematician Alan Turing. Turing famously devised the “the Turing test,” which evaluates a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior by seeing if it can fool human judges into believing they’re talking with another human in a text-based conversation. Basically, he’s like a god to these robots—hence the name of the artwork, A.I. God, a Portrait of Alan Turing.

Signed by “A,” the mixed-media painting is 64 x 90.5 inches.

Meller, the bot’s owner, hyped up the piece to CBS MoneyWatch: “What makes this work of art different from other AI-generated works is that with Ai-Da there is a physical manifestation, and this is the first time a work from a robot of this type has ever come to auction.”

“There is a lot of innovation happening—a huge number of robots are coming forward—and they will eventually do all sorts of different tasks,” Meller continued. “Art is a way of discussing the incredible changes in society that are happening because of technology.”

Brave new frontier or just more AI slop? I’ll let you decide.

“Ai-Da’s portrait joins a selection of cutting-edge works that—in their individual ways—push the boundaries of artistic creation today,” said Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s Head of NFT and digital art. “Together, they prompt a discussion of how we can appreciate and experience the ever-evolving possibilities around artmaking in the 21st century.”

The auction opens on Halloween. Pretty fitting if you ask me.

The post Robot Debuts AI Slop at Sotheby’s, Asking for $120,000 appeared first on VICE.

On average, 65 percent of people undergoing chemotherapy experience hair loss—and with some cancers, it’s as high as 99.9 percent of patients. For many people, it’s deeply traumatic.

And it’s not just aesthetic: According to Luminate, the top reason cancer patients stop or withdraw from their cancer treatments is peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage. By the company’s logic, if there’s a technology that could reduce such damaging side effects, more patients would have a chance at recovery. 

“We were just astonished at how much hair loss dominated the conversation,” said Aaron Hannon, the company’s CEO, about his time talking to doctors and patients of how to innovate in the cancer space. “So from then on out, we’ve just been laser-focused on making that something that doesn’t exist anymore.”

They say that’s why they invented Lily, a portable helmet designed for hair retention. 

How the Lily Helmet Works

The wearable device essentially applies even pressure throughout the scalp—a much more comfortable, convenient, and quicker process than cooling, another common yet uncomfortable hair loss option for cancer patients. Lily works by blocking capillaries and preventing the chemo from reaching hair follicles. 

“We’re really excited about the efficacy of this therapy because it works with lots of hair types,” said Hannon. “We’ve had patients finish four to 12 chemo treatments and keep a full head of hair. There’s been incredible feedback about how it’s changed their experience of going through treatment.”

Lily is currently entering clinical trials in Europe but will eventually do so in the States, too.

“The next step is a multi-center study in the U.S. for FDA clearance there,” Hannon said. “New York, Florida, potentially Ohio—we’re openly enrolling sites that want to trial the technology.”

While it’s still in its early stages and not yet available, this could be a game-changer for cancer patients enduring chemotherapy in the future. 

The post New Helmet Could End Cancer Patients’ Hair Loss from Chemo appeared first on VICE.

In a press release, the department revealed that its technology and data-driven approach to fraud and improper payment prevention enabled the recovery of $4 billion between Oct. 2023 and Sept. 2024. That is more than $650 million more in recovered funds than the prior fiscal year.

A quarter of the recovered $4 billion is thanks to the department’s efforts to expedite the identification of check fraud with machine learning AI. The remaining recovered funds came from the department expanding risk-based screening, identifying and prioritizing high-risk transactions, and implementing efficiencies in payment processing schedule.

“Treasury takes seriously our responsibility to serve as effective stewards of taxpayer money,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said. “Helping ensure that agencies pay the right person, in the right amount, at the right time is central to our efforts.”

“We’ve made significant progress during the past year in preventing over $4 billion in fraudulent and improper payments,” Adeyemo continued. “We will continue to partner with others in the federal government to equip them with the necessary tools, data, and expertise they need to stop improper payments and fraud.”

Moving forward, the department is focused on establishing and strengthening partnerships to increase access to and usage of federally-funded, state-administered programs.

In its work, the department disburses over $6.9 trillion dollars to more than 100 million people annually. With the knowledge that online payment fraud is expected to surpass $362 billion by 2028, the department said it’s dedicated to mitigating the risk of fraud by using emerging technology such as AI.

The post How the Treasury Department Used AI To Save Taxpayers $1 Billion appeared first on VICE.

Researchers in the UK have developed a new VR project that aims to help people addicted to cocaine put their recovery into action by presenting them with real-life scenarios that might tempt them to relapse. It’s called cue exposure treatment (CET), and it’s all done in a safe environment without any actual threats.

Studies show cue exposure treatment works really well in reducing cravings and preventing relapse among alcoholics. First, the team will identify environmental cues that lead to cravings through wearable devices. Then, they’ll employ virtual reality to repeatedly expose participants to these triggers repeatedly. 

For example, VR can create a scene where the person is out with friends and offered a line of coke. The person can then channel what they’ve learned in therapy/rehab to practice avoiding the temptations.

It’s easy to believe you’re healed when you’re just sitting on the couch, but it’s not uncommon to get caught up in IRL situations that test your recovery in the real world. These tailored 3D experiences can shed light on specific harder-to-handle cues—and what still needs attention in the addict’s journey. 

Maybe the person can turn down drugs at a crowded party with loved ones around, but what happens when they’re isolated in their flat on a lonely night? These VR experiences can identify personal triggers and help them practice strategies to refuse drugs.

This research involves collaboration between five UK universities: Addictions Department, IoPPN Virtual Lab, and Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics at King’s College London, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research at the University of Hull, University of Kent, University of Birmingham, and University of Southampton.

Now, the virtual reality research project is part of a £12m government investment aiming to decrease drug overdoses. Other projects receiving funding also involve virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and wearable technology as tools to support recovery.

“We are trying to better understand the scenarios—the cues and interactions—that trigger cravings in people who use cocaine,” said Paolo Deluca, lead researcher and a professor of addiction research at King’s College London.

The post Can Virtual Reality Help You Kick Cocaine? UK Scientists Are Finding Out appeared first on VICE.