ChatGPT as a potential source of COVID misinformation

Last update: Friday 12/30/22 

This note appeals for help from readers of this blog who have expertise related to infectious diseases. The  blog's editor is a data analyst with multiple certifications in data science, but has no bioscience degrees. 

Like most of the million initial users of ChatGPT, the editor asked ChatGPT a few exploratory questions and was impressed by its responses, startled by its limitations, and gratified by its candid admission that it does not understand what it's talking about.

His next step was to ask ChatGPT to give him a tutorial that addressed a few aspects of the coronavirus about which his understanding is still a bit fuzzy. He asked the following six questions. Each answer led him to pose the next question. Taken together, the straight-forward explanations he received clarified his understanding.

Questions

1. What roles do antigens, antibodies, B-cells, and T-cells play in the human immune system?

2. How do T-cells attack infected cells?

3. How do T-cells learn to recognize infected cells?

4. How long does it take for B-cells and T-cells to recognize foreign antigens?

5. Which type of cell remembers foreign antigens longer: B-cells or T-cells?

6. Can B-cells or T-cells recognize variants of foreign antigens?

Are ChatGPT's answers correct?

Now the editor is asking expert readers to tell him what he should unlearn if ChatGPT's responses were incorrect. If readers pose the same questions to ChatGPT, it should give them the same answers that it gave to the editor. This note does not include the answers that he received because the answers might contain misinformation

For those of you who have not opened a free account with ChatGPT, here is the link to its sign-up page ==> https://chat.openai.com/auth/login

Please submit your assessments of ChatGPT's answers in the text box labelled "Enter Comments" at the bottom of this page.

Note: The NY Times recently published an informative overview of ChatGPT and related AI innovations:

• "A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business", Nico Grant and Cade Metz, NY Times, 12/21/22 

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