ChatGPT Diagnoses Boy’s Mystery Illness After 17 Doctors Were Stumped

ChatGPT is a sophisticated tool that can curate intelligent responses to human queries. The uses for ChatGPT are seemingly endless, but a concerned mother found the chatbot to be a valuable asset in diagnosing her son’s chronic illness. After leaving 17 highly-educated doctors stumped, ChatGPT was able to accurately diagnose the child.

The young boy was in significant pain, would chew on various things, and even stopped growing taller. Courtney took him to multiple doctors and in 2021, she noticed that Alex was having difficulty balancing his left and right side. “He would lead with his right foot and just bring his left food along for the ride,” she said.

“(Our nanny) started telling me, ‘I have to give him Motrin every day, or he has these gigantic meltdowns,” she said. “If he had Motrin, he was totally fine.” Realizing that her son was really suffering, Courtney sought to get him some help. 

Feeling helpless, she decided to turn to ChatGPT for help. She entered the boy’s symptoms into the chatbot and hoped to finally get some insight into what was happening with Alex. She was desperate to do whatever she could to alleviate her son’s pain and discomfort.

“I went line by line of everything that was in his (MRI notes) and plugged it into ChatGPT,” she said. Courtney’s mother’s instinct told her that “a structural thing could be wrong” with her son, but she wasn’t expecting ChatGPT to be the one to diagnose it.

His inability to position himself in a simple pose was a “huge trigger” for her. Of the results that ChatGPT generated, the chatbot suggested “tethered cord syndrome” as one of the potential causes. After conducting further research, Courtney found that tethered cord syndrome is a neurological condition where “the spinal cord is attached to surrounding tissue of the spine.” 

Using ChatGPT was the most viable option she could come up with and she was willing to try just about anything to help her son. “We saw so many doctors,” she said. “We ended up in the ER at one point. I kept pushing,” she says. “I really spent the night on the (computer) … going through all these things.”

She was shocked when she read story after story that sounded just like what was happening with Alex, but she was also relieved to have some answers after a three-year search. At Alex’s next neurosurgeon appointment, Courtney mentioned the possibility of tethered cord syndrome to the doctor. After an MRI, the doctor was able to locate where Alex’s spine was tethered.

Courtney was extremely grateful that ChatGPT was able to take a closer look at what was ailing Alex. Without ChatGPT, Alex’s condition may have gone undiagnosed for years. Courtney has utilized the chatbot in the most unexpected yet miraculous way.

Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association, has warned of the dangers of relying on ChatGPT instead of licensed medical professionals. “OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI products currently have known issues and are not error-free,” he said. Of course, ChatGPT is not without flaws, neither are humans. 

Although most doctors advise not to trust ChatGPT with your medical needs, many are impressed by the chatbot’s capabilities. Harvard-trained physician Dr. Isaac Kohane dissected the latest version of ChatGPT in his book, “The AI Revolution in Medicine.” In the book, Dr. Kohane wrote that GPT-4 could very well be more competent than some of the doctors he’s observed.

The advanced chatbot is able to answer U.S. medical exam licensing questions with 90% accuracy, which is a higher score than many physicians who have taken the exam. To access GPT-4, you must be a paid subscriber of the ChatGPT service.