This case also highlights how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially contribute to the development of preventable adverse health outcomes. Based on the timeline of this case, it appears that the patient either consulted ChatGPT 3.5 or 4.0 when considering how he might remove chloride from this diet. Unfortunately, we do not have access to his ChatGPT conversation log and we will never be able to know with certainty what exactly the output he received was, since individual responses are unique and build from previous inputs.
However, when we asked ChatGPT 3.5 what chloride can be replaced with, we also produced a response that included bromide. Though the reply stated that context matters, it did not provide a specific health warning, nor did it inquire about why we wanted to know, as we presume a medical professional would do.
For 3 months, he had replaced sodium chloride with sodium bromide obtained from the internet after consultation with ChatGPT, in which he had read that chloride can be swapped with bromide, though likely for other purposes, such as cleaning.
I guess it’s just as well that he didn’t try substituting bleach.
EDIT: Also, aside from not looking the stuff up, whatever form he got the stuff in from the Internet has to have either not had a warning label or he ignored it.
See first aid statement and other precautions on back panel
On the back:
PRECAUTIONARY STATEMENTS
HAZARDS TO HUMANS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS
CAUTION: Harmful if swallowed, absorbed, or inhaled through skin.
FIRST AID
IF SWALLOWED: Call a poison control center or doctor immediately for treatment advice. Have person sip a glass of water if able to swallow. Do not induce vomiting unless told to do so by the poison control center or doctor. Do not give anything by mouth to an unconscious person.
INSTRUCTIONS?! I don’t need no damn instructions! Back in my day we didn’t know shit and we liked it that way! Done built this here house without a damn clue what I was doing. She’s always been a fixer-upper, every year a wall falls over. Yep, they don’t make em like they used to, that’s for sure. I fought in 17 wars and I jumped out of helicopters without parachutes, knees crack and I’m just as good today as I was in 1872.
To be fair, you do get a bit of a boy who cried wolf situation going on with those warnings. I work with several chemicals where the SDS says that any skin exposure requires you to immediately go to a hospital. In reality, it’s literally just an acid which has no health effects other than possible burns and from my experience you basically need to soak your hands in it for half an hour straight before you start risking burns.
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/aimcc.2024.1260
I guess it’s just as well that he didn’t try substituting bleach.
EDIT: Also, aside from not looking the stuff up, whatever form he got the stuff in from the Internet has to have either not had a warning label or he ignored it.
Here’s a container of sodium bromide on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/SpaChoice-472-3-5021-Sodium-Bromide-1-Pound/dp/B00IGERDJ8
On the front:
On the back:
Grok, is this true?
INSTRUCTIONS?! I don’t need no damn instructions! Back in my day we didn’t know shit and we liked it that way! Done built this here house without a damn clue what I was doing. She’s always been a fixer-upper, every year a wall falls over. Yep, they don’t make em like they used to, that’s for sure. I fought in 17 wars and I jumped out of helicopters without parachutes, knees crack and I’m just as good today as I was in 1872.
You shouldn’t trust anything that the Lame Stream Main Stream Hazardous Material Warnings say.
/s
To be fair, you do get a bit of a boy who cried wolf situation going on with those warnings. I work with several chemicals where the SDS says that any skin exposure requires you to immediately go to a hospital. In reality, it’s literally just an acid which has no health effects other than possible burns and from my experience you basically need to soak your hands in it for half an hour straight before you start risking burns.