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Astral Codex Ten ·Smart escape

Our AI Midwife

by Scott Alexander

Published 2026-10-02 01:08:13+00:00

What happens when the only doctor with the patience to keep looking is a machine?

0:00 / 9:22 · Narrator Charon

Context

After six years of failed fertility treatments, Drew Housman and his wife hit a wall with their doctors. Writing on 2 October 2026, he explains how they turned to a chatbot instead, prompting the software to act like a television doctor. The result is a surprisingly competent diagnostician who catches something the specialists missed. The story pauses on a strange modern tension. Public debate treats artificial intelligence as a looming threat, while regular people are quietly using it to solve the most intimate human problems imaginable.

Show notes

A firsthand account of using ChatGPT to diagnose a six-year case of unexplained infertility. By prompting the language model to roleplay as a television doctor, a couple bypassed its safety filters and identified a uterine tumor their human specialists had missed. The story contrasts this practical use of the technology with the rising public anxiety surrounding artificial intelligence.

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