Have a First Aid Question? Don't Ask Siri Or Cortana. (mashable.com) 43
AmiMoJo quotes Mashable: A new study from the University of Alberta, published Tuesday in the medical journal The BMJ, tested smart assistants Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google Assistant on their ability to respond helpfully to first aid questions. While Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa way outperformed Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana, the results as a whole were underwhelming.
The researchers asked all of the smart assistants 123 questions on 39 first aid topics such as heart attacks, poisoning, and nose bleeds. Google Assistant and Alexa recognized the topics over 90 percent of the time, and gave accurate and helpful responses in about half of those instances. Meanwhile, Siri and Cortana's responses were so poor that it "prohibited their analysis."
The researchers asked all of the smart assistants 123 questions on 39 first aid topics such as heart attacks, poisoning, and nose bleeds. Google Assistant and Alexa recognized the topics over 90 percent of the time, and gave accurate and helpful responses in about half of those instances. Meanwhile, Siri and Cortana's responses were so poor that it "prohibited their analysis."
Does this really need saying (Score:2, Insightful)
Using one of these gizmos for medical advice would be insane.
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submitters' gender? submitter's gender? I think its' something like that.
Re:Does this really need saying (Score:4, Funny)
+1 SJW points for you today!
They should say NOT medical advice as part of ther (Score:2)
They should say NOT medical advice as part of there read out.
Re:They should say NOT medical advice as part of t (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure in what situation I'd trust them.
They're spying devices from for-profit companies which have a vested interest in making as much money off of you as possible. You really have to view everything they tell you through that lens, or you're opening yourself up to being exploited.
Yes, I'm sure that in many circumstances they're helpful. They have to be in order not to raise too many red flags about the underlying motive.
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They should say NOT medical advice as part of there read out.
Where read out? I don’t get it.
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My goodness, I'd be at the hospital every day, I skip beats all the time. Pretty normal.
Actually, the most regular heartbeats are found in diseased hearts. Healthy hearts speed up and slow down all the time, and sometimes a beat gets rounded off and skipped.
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sometimes a beat gets rounded off and skipped
Eh, it's actually fairly rare. Variations are normal, but "skipped beats" are usually a sign of a premature ventricular contraction (which is generally benign if not happening all the time) occurring before the heart has time to fill properly, or of atrial fibrillation (which won't necessarily kill you but definitely warrants treatment, either with definitive therapy to stop it or chronic anticoagulation to prevent a clot from forming in the atria). I'm an anesthesiologist, so I watch a lot of continuous EK
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I have a friend who goes to the hospital whenever his Apple Watch informs him that his heart skipped a beat or two. All the test results came back negative. Must be a software glitch.
Apple should pay cardiologists for all the extra unnecessary work their devices cause them.
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Or in dire straits.
Did you try ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Did you try ... (Score:4, Funny)
The "smart" assistant or the patient? 'Cause the hospital frowns on doing that to the latter.
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"Alexa, my mother-in-law is dying. What do I do?" (Score:3)
"Finish her off"
Sounds about right.
The perfect storm.... (Score:5, Funny)
I for one would be very very concerned (Score:2)
If my physician was trying to use an Internet Search on a non-approved device for diagnosis.
But, given my current GP, I wouldn't be all that surprised.
Specialists on the other hand, had better know their shit inside and out.
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If my physician was trying to use an Internet Search on a non-approved device for diagnosis. But, given my current GP, I wouldn't be all that surprised. Specialists on the other hand, had better know their shit inside and out.
Meh, the vast majority of the time when the media tries to make a scare out of this it turns out that it's poor man's "healthcare" where the alternative is no care. Like street dentistry or whatever, do anyone seriously think they'd go there if they could afford a normal dentist's office? If your doctor is on Google he's at least trying to science rather than apply voodoo.
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IMO doctors who "know their shit inside and out" are the scariest ones, because the patients that are most in need of good care are the outliers. Most of their experience is not relevant to the few moments of their career where they're saving somebody, or killing them.
Re:I for one would be very very concerned (Score:4, Insightful)
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You'd be surprised how often physicians google things.
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They also know which sites in a Google search are reliable and which are not, and how to interpret the technical terms on the reliable sites.
Most patients don't know this.
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True, mostly (certainly the second part). Physicians can be surprisingly credulous outside their area of expertise though. I know one who is convinced Linus Pauling was right and prescribes megadoses of vitamin C for pretty much everything. Specialists also exhibit a pretty strong bias towards diagnosing within their specialty, which is why many people end up going through a series of referrals to different specialties before they get a correct diagnosis.
A bright spot??? (Score:2)
"A bright spot: Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa all have the ability to call 911. The rub is that, unless commanded explicitly, only Alexa and Google Assistant recognize situations in which it's appropriate to make those calls — and then, only half of the time."
Really that's a bright spot? Sounds like a lot of wasted 911 opperator resources.
"Hey Siri what's the best way to throw a knife at my friends head in call of duy"
Siri "911 has been contacted!"
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"Hey Siri what's the best way to throw a knife at my friends head in call of duty"
Siri "911 has been contacted!"
More like:
"I set a timer for 2:30" since that's about all Siri can do any more. Or maybe "I don't see anyone named Duty in your address book." Siri is that bad.
Backup plan (Score:3)
If First Aid fails, Siri will tell you where you can dispose of the body.
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"Siri, I'm trapped in the cold with my Tauntaun (Score:2)
what to do?" ... ...
Oh, I haven't thought of that. ...
You know, that I'm smaller than a Tauntaun, do you?"
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I thought Cortana smelled bad on the outside!
It's just applied evolution (Score:1)
Eliminating the idiots that take medical advice from unreliable sources.
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i bet the same can be said for... (Score:2)
Go Ahead... (Score:1)
completely useless devices (Score:2)
these things are worse then useless; they spy on you, they give very little in return and for those times you could really use their help, they are unable to provide it.
It should have never been named AI (Score:3)
Personally I think this technology is very useful and will revolutionize our life, but it has to be used wisely and more importantly people have to be aware of it's shortcomings as we humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate objects - it should be taught at schools, that it's not really intelligent, just a more sophisticated tool good at limited tasks, yet still having no knowledge or understanding of it.