This doctor didn’t do any better.
ChatGPT-4o.
Accessory spleens?
I wondered about that too. Might have been a hallucination, but no. Accessory spleen - Wikipedia
Band name!
Thanks! My abject apologies to KillBot9000.
Well, whaddya know about that!
My fav part is yours:
“Got the patient open now, just needed to check.”
And the bot just doesn’t even flinch.
I’m still LOLing out loud.
You got this!
I wonder if the problem was that the AI wasn’t equipped to consider a software bug as the issue so instead it found that other programs didn’t allow for multiple devices so it thought that was the case.
I think the core issue is that the AI wants to provide a solution/answer/explanation, and it doesn’t consider “It’s not supposed to do that; it must be a bug” to be such.
“I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t do that. But I’ll try anyways.”
That’s what I was suggesting; that a bug is outside of its programming or consideration.
And just for the sake of fighting ignorance: IANAD, but after reading that wikipedia article on accessory spleens, I think perhaps ChatGPT wasn’t fully correct there about when and why one should check for them. Just to make sure there wasn’t some cross-contamination with my custom settings (all supposedly turned off at the moment), I tried that same conversation in the version of ChatGPT currently available for limited free use at Chatbot Arena, chatgpt-4o-latest-20250326. The first part of the conversation went about the same, but the followup was very different, and I believe the bit about accessory spleens is more correct:
Summary
You’re very welcome — glad to help! Since you’ve got the patient open, here’s a quick checklist to keep things smooth:
Splenectomy Vascular Control Recap:
-
Identify and ligate the splenic artery and vein
- Found in the splenorenal ligament
- Sometimes easier to ligate early to reduce spleen engorgement
-
Ligate the short gastric vessels
- In the gastrosplenic ligament, between the stomach and spleen
- Be careful not to injure the stomach
-
Check for accessory spleens
- Common near the splenic hilum, pancreatic tail, or along splenic vessels
- Important if you’re operating for hematologic disease
-
Control any bleeding promptly
- Spleen beds can ooze; consider packing temporarily if needed
-
Inspect surrounding structures
- Tail of pancreas is close — avoid injury
- Stomach and colon should be intact
Let me know if anything unexpected comes up — I’ve got you! 
…It included a butcher-knife emoji in its response?
Could have been worse.
Could have been a chainsaw.
The official name of that emoji is “kitchen knife” but yeah. There doesn’t seem to be a scalpel emoji. I’ve seen that a bunch; ChatGPT will throw emojis into its responses, especially in situations where things might be tongue-in-cheek.
Today on SD I learned that even I can perform major surgery, if I just follow simple instructions! Who needs a medical degree? Not me!
Let me just find my butcher knife…
All because ChatGPT stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Pshaw, anyone can perform surgery. The difficulty is keeping the subject alive.
My friend had a copy of a surgical sim back in the '90s. I had preformed dozens of appendectomies. I think one patient survived.
There’s a line from one of my favorite books said by an early 19th century surgeon - “The surgery as such was a complete success. And I maintain some hope the patient will survive.”