Reddit Mod Warns 'Do Not Trust' AI-Powered 'Reddit Answers' After It Posts Dangerous Health Advice
- Reference: 0179820554
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/18/086208/reddit-mod-warns-do-not-trust-ai-powered-reddit-answers-after-it-posts-dangerous-health-advice
- Source link:
Elsewhere a healthcare worker [2]described what happened when they tested Reddit Answers :
> I made a post in r/familymedicine and a link appeared below it with information on treating chronic pain. The first post it cited urged people to stop their prescribed medications and take high-dose kratom which is an illegal (in some states) and unregulated substance. I absolutely do not endorse this...
>
> I also asked about the medical indications for heroin. One answer warned about addiction and linked to crisis and recovery resources. The other connects to a post where someone claims heroin saved their life and controls their chronic pain. The post was encouraging people to stop prescribed medications and use heroin instead. Heroin is a schedule I drug in the US which means there are no acceptable uses. It's incredibly addictive and dangerous. It is responsible for the loss of so many lives...
>
> The AI-generated answers could easily be mistaken as information endorsed by the sub it appears in. r/familymedicine absolutely does not endorse using heroin to treat chronic pain. This feature needs to be disabled in medical and mental health subs, or allow moderators of these subreddits to opt out. Better filters are also needed when users ask Reddit Answers health related questions. If this continues there will be adverse outcomes. People will be harmed. This needs to change.
Two days ago an official Reddit "Admin" posted that "We've [3]made some changes to where Answers appears based on this feedback," adding that beyond that Reddit "will continue to tweak based on what we're seeing and hearing." But the "Family Medicine" subreddit still has [4]a top-of-page announcement warning every user there ...
"We do NOT and CANNOT endorse Reddit Answers at this time and urge every user of this sub to disregard anything it says."
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/FamilyMedicine/comments/1o59w4e/announcement_do_not_trust_or_listen_to_reddit/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/1o4bwx6/safety_concern_reddit_answers_is_recommending/
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/1o4bwx6/comment/nj2pk8b/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/FamilyMedicine/comments/1o59w4e/announcement_do_not_trust_or_listen_to_reddit/
LOVE (Score:1)
I LOVE THE AI FUTURE! I LOVE EXORBITANT ELECTRICITY PRICES! i love getting the wrong answers to all of my questions! I LOVE RUINING THE INTERNET FOR ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS!
MORE CAPITAL FOR THE CAPITAL BLACK HOLE!
more blood for the blood god!
MORE HALLUCINATIONS FOR THE SCHIZOPHRENICS!
Maybe I travel in different circles, but... (Score:2)
The overwhelming response I see and hear about AI from LLMs is "How do I shut that shit off?"
How does any biz make a success out of this crap?
Re: (Score:1)
StfuGPT will be the next big LLM.
Anybody who trusts AI... (Score:3)
...deserves what they get
I have found good information using AI, but I have also found complete nonsense, presented as fact.
Always cross-check with reliable sources
Also, don't trust human Reddit answers (Score:2)
Many times, while looking for answers on Google, I've encountered sloppy or just plain wrong answers from Reddit. I haven't gone there for answers for years, because the quality of responses has always been so low. It seems natural that AI answers that summarize human responses, would be equally inaccurate.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, yeah. That's exactly what I thought when I saw this.
All Social Media is full of 'influencers' who don't know what the fuck they're talking about. The potential benefit of a (wrong) AI answer is that you -might- be able to query the AI to find out how why it said that. Of course, the LLM is likely to say "That's the most common content from Social Media."
AI and medical advice go together (Score:1)
...like smokers and kerosene factories.
Liability (Score:2)
I'm really surprised they're not terrified of the liability. If their bot tells a 15 year old to OD on Kratom, and the kid dies, they don't have any protection. You'd think if nothing else they'd restrict it from posting medical and/or legal advice.
Being Reddit... (Score:1)
I'm surprised the brilliant, fair-minded mods haven't tweaked the warning to recommend Heroin and Fentanyl to everyone whose politics they disagree with.
Before banning them from the site, of course.
Do not trust "AI", period. (Score:3)
That is for the crappy, unfixable LLM version, obviously. Other AI technologies can perform fine, but in entirely different tasks. The only somewhat reliable way the human race has for getting general answers is to ask an actual, human expert. Of course, fake "experts" are plentiful, and many people do not even have the basic fact-checking ability needed to separate real experts from fake ones. Explains a lot about the current AI hype and why democracy fails time and again.
Re: (Score:3)
The funny thing is that Reddit has completely misread the room. If people wanted LLM answers they would go to ChatGPT or Gemini or something. People are going to reddit *to ask the probable human experts* on a field, or at least find a general consensus, not get an LLM crap-answer. A "smart" search on reddit to find duplicate postings of what you're posting about might be a better use of AI but this was someone wanting to answer the question "How can we use LLM since LLM is using us" and came up with a wron
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. This fail on the part of Reddit is telling: They do not understand their business model! Nobody has any reason to go to Reddit except talking to actual humans.
My guess is they just "thought" that since everybody is doing "AI", they should so too.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't trust AI is a generalization, however, we can clearly see that we can't trust stupidity; stupid people using or not using AI is a serious problem, especially when they're running everything
classism breeds corruption which produces incompetence
Re: (Score:2)
If your actually read my posting, you will see that it is actually "do not tust LLMs". And that is not a generalization at all, because for LLMs it is mathematically proven that hallucinations cannot be prevented.
Re: (Score:2)
actually, we can't trust reddit since it's censored by excessive and often partisan moderation
Re: (Score:2)
Moderation does generally not add things.