The New Yorker:

Large language models are transforming medicine—but the technology comes with side effects.

By Dhruv Khullar

In 2017, Matthew Williams, a thirtysomething software engineer with an athletic build and a bald head, went for a long bike ride in the hills of San Francisco. Afterward, at dinner with some friends, he ordered a hamburger, fries, and a milkshake. Midway through the meal, he felt so full that he had to ask someone to drive him home. That night, Williams awoke with a sharp pain in his abdomen that he worried was appendicitis. He went to a nearby emergency clinic, where doctors told him that he was probably constipated. They gave him some laxatives and sent him on his way.

A few hours later, Williams’s pain intensified. He vomited and felt as though his stomach might burst. A friend took him to a hospital, where a CT scan revealed cecal volvulus—a medical emergency in which part of the intestine twists in on itself, cutting off the digestive tract. The previous medical team had missed the condition, and may even have exacerbated it by giving him laxatives. Williams was rushed to the operating room, where surgeons removed about six feet of his intestines.

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