Today in AI Is Not A Good Source For Learning About The World's Most Misunderstood Body Part, meet this ChatGPT gem.
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Today in AI Is Not A Good Source For Learning About The World's Most Misunderstood Body Part, meet this ChatGPT gem.
Funnily enough, we're actually going to talk about how most of this is kinda sorta right (for small values of right), as a cautionary tale about generative AI.
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Today in AI Is Not A Good Source For Learning About The World's Most Misunderstood Body Part, meet this ChatGPT gem.
Funnily enough, we're actually going to talk about how most of this is kinda sorta right (for small values of right), as a cautionary tale about generative AI.
Generative AI products like ChatGPT work by scanning data, and then concocting a response which sounds like the data. In other words, it's always making something up, and giving an answer that sounds right based on what it has "learned". This is how we got to this bizarre illustration of pregnancy.
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Generative AI products like ChatGPT work by scanning data, and then concocting a response which sounds like the data. In other words, it's always making something up, and giving an answer that sounds right based on what it has "learned". This is how we got to this bizarre illustration of pregnancy.
We'll start with the foetus in the uterus, chilling out in there in a head-up position with neither an umbilical cord nor a placenta (foetuses very much need those).
The position of the foetus at this stage of pregnancy would usually be head-down, but many medical illustrations will depict this head-up position in a specific context: when talking about breech births, which require extra medical assistance.
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We'll start with the foetus in the uterus, chilling out in there in a head-up position with neither an umbilical cord nor a placenta (foetuses very much need those).
The position of the foetus at this stage of pregnancy would usually be head-down, but many medical illustrations will depict this head-up position in a specific context: when talking about breech births, which require extra medical assistance.
If we're being meticulously, scrupulously fair, we can also mention that not all foetuses need the cord and placenta. Sharks don't, and can be gestated in artificial uteruses. https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/112773765560702345
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If we're being meticulously, scrupulously fair, we can also mention that not all foetuses need the cord and placenta. Sharks don't, and can be gestated in artificial uteruses. https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/112773765560702345
Next up, you might be wondering what the little oblong labelled "cervix" is. Well, it is absolutely not a cervix, but there is a real body part there; that isn't "hallucinated". That's the pubic symphysis, a cartilaginous joint at the front of the pelvis which frequently appears in sagittal diagrams of the gynaecological anatomy.
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Next up, you might be wondering what the little oblong labelled "cervix" is. Well, it is absolutely not a cervix, but there is a real body part there; that isn't "hallucinated". That's the pubic symphysis, a cartilaginous joint at the front of the pelvis which frequently appears in sagittal diagrams of the gynaecological anatomy.
So how did the pubic symphysis come to be labelled "cervix"? Pretty much every diagram of the gynaecological anatomy contains a label which says "cervix". If you're a robot, you probably know that a label saying "cervix" is part of a diagram, but you don't actually know what a cervix is, so you slap that label anywhere.
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So how did the pubic symphysis come to be labelled "cervix"? Pretty much every diagram of the gynaecological anatomy contains a label which says "cervix". If you're a robot, you probably know that a label saying "cervix" is part of a diagram, but you don't actually know what a cervix is, so you slap that label anywhere.
The only part on this diagram which is labelled even vaguely correctly is the pudendal nerve. There is indeed a nerve complex round there which is called the pudendal nerve. And bits of it *are* positioned around the anus and buttocks. But if you have a vulva, the nerve complex continues around there. It doesn't kind of trail off into nothingness beneath the buttocks.
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The only part on this diagram which is labelled even vaguely correctly is the pudendal nerve. There is indeed a nerve complex round there which is called the pudendal nerve. And bits of it *are* positioned around the anus and buttocks. But if you have a vulva, the nerve complex continues around there. It doesn't kind of trail off into nothingness beneath the buttocks.
But do you know when the pudendal nerve *does* appear at that exact angle on a diagram? If you have a scrotum.
Image credit: Mikael Häggström
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But do you know when the pudendal nerve *does* appear at that exact angle on a diagram? If you have a scrotum.
Image credit: Mikael Häggström
Which brings us onto the part which most of you probably noticed first: the uterus and bladder which open out onto a penis, labelled "rectum".
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Which brings us onto the part which most of you probably noticed first: the uterus and bladder which open out onto a penis, labelled "rectum".
Okay first of all, that bit is not a rectum. In fact, ChatGPT's diagram contains a perfectly correct rectum next to the spine, but see above for why the label is incorrect.
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Okay first of all, that bit is not a rectum. In fact, ChatGPT's diagram contains a perfectly correct rectum next to the spine, but see above for why the label is incorrect.
Moreover, it is not correct to say that absolutely no creature in nature has a bladder and vagina which open out onto a penis-like organ. Hyenas do (although the urethra and vagina are separate). https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/109479197717671335
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Moreover, it is not correct to say that absolutely no creature in nature has a bladder and vagina which open out onto a penis-like organ. Hyenas do (although the urethra and vagina are separate). https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/109479197717671335
And so, putting it all together, ChatGPT has not, in fact, invented anything wholesale. It's cobbled together some things which are correct into a montage that is completely, wholly wrong. It's mashed together information from medical diagrams about pathology, diagrams of the penis, perhaps a few illustrations of animal genitalia, then added a few labels which frequently appear in medical diagrams.
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And so, putting it all together, ChatGPT has not, in fact, invented anything wholesale. It's cobbled together some things which are correct into a montage that is completely, wholly wrong. It's mashed together information from medical diagrams about pathology, diagrams of the penis, perhaps a few illustrations of animal genitalia, then added a few labels which frequently appear in medical diagrams.
So that's how generative AI works... and how it can tell you you'll give birth out of your penis-rectum.
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