I had a health concern pop-up unexpectedly in the midst of our snowpacalypse this weekend. I won’t get into the specific details. I refuse to become another old person who talks about their health problems all the time. Let’s just say that I never had this issue before and wasn’t sure how to handle it.
Besides, this post isn’t about my health, it’s about AI.
My first action was to use Google search AI. As I read through the responses I asked google AI for more clarification. The more I asked, the more helpful it became. I read through studies from the NIH and NHS, potential causes of my problem, what to do immediately and when/if I should seek medical help.
Then, because I wanted to dig deeper, I tried Perplexity. It was freaking awesome. Perplexity has built a profile and history with me over time. It knows my age, my activities and fitness levels, other health questions I had asked in the past, my diet, etc. I was able to ask it very direct questions specific to my situation. It used my profile and these drill-down questions to provide me with very specific action items, possible concerns and feedback. What was most helpful was how it helped me frame what was happening and why – not generically, but why specifically to me. I was a bit freaked out by the health incident and asked the tpey of follow up questions I would ask a doctor like: Could this have been happening before but I didn’t notice? Might this be a lifelong allergic reaction that was “hidden” to me because I’d never put cause/effect tougher before? Is this due to something I’ve done? Or because I’m older?
As I read through the supporting materials linked behind the response each answer proved to be thoughtful, specific and appropriate. My concerns were alleviated, even if my issue was going to take days or weeks to resolve.
Towards the end of this communication I asked some bigger questions and expressed other concerns that I hadn’t discussed with a human yet just to see how Perplexity would handle them. Things like:
- Am I falling apart? My shoulder problem, an increasing susceptibility chronic injuries, two hernias a few years ago and now this. Is this what I should expect going forward?
- Am I pushing myself too hard? Are my diet and workouts actually making things worse?
- Am I doing something wrong? Are my expectations for myself and my health unrealistic?
- I’m thinking about making these changes – do they make sense?
- Am I becoming an overly self-obsessed hypochondriac? Am I losing my mind?
I was blown away by the responses. It was as if I was having a thoughtful, nuanced conversation with a good therapist or doctor.
It referred to things we had “discussed” in the past. It tailored it’s responses to be personal and specific to my situation instead of giving me generic WebMD type responses. By the time I had finished, I was having in an in-depth exchange working through other ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for a while.
An example was a discussion of why I was changing my workouts, my thoughts/concerns about cutting back, what it means to me, references to the unique workout I created and how this was impacting me emotionally, as well as physically.
A year ago, I was underwhelmed by AI. Not anymore.