Digital Exhaust #180

Please don't call my cervix incompetent

Here are a few things I found interesting this week:

Overconfidence and AI

Seth Godin reminds us, “When a simple, convenient bit of data shows up on your computer screen, take it with a grain of salt.” Search. ChatGPT. Algorithm

Increasingly I’m seeing this bias that comes with computerized results. We think if it came out of a machine, there’s something special about it. All of this, of course, will only get worse with AI.

Why Google should be afraid

I went to ChatGPT and entered "Simple instructions about how to send email from a Node.js app?" What came back was absolutely perfect, none of the confusing crap and business models you see in online instructions in Google. I see why Google is worried. ;-)#

Great short format breakdown of Google’s missteps from Dave Winer on the oldest blog on the internet.

Nature says GPT can’t author scientific papers

Seems reasonable.

Doctors, get ready for your AI assistants

Eric Topol of

Ground Truths

pens a quick hit in Wired on the current state of AI in medicine. He finishes with a nod to the elephants in the exam room: privacy and bias:

Nevertheless, there remains a dire need to reduce bias and promote privacy and security in the application of medical AI. Privacy AI computing is starting to take off with the use of federated and swarm learning, as well as with the increasing application of edge computing, which uses algorithms fully operating on the smartphone.

Please don’t call my cervix incompetent

File under weird medical history. A collection in the Atlantic (paywalled but you can register) of weird and dated medical terms including geriatric pregnancy, hostile uterus, incompetent cervix, and others. A closing nod to the impact of Open Notes: “This increased transparency might just be the kick medicine needs to accelerate the pace of language change and do away with terms like incompetent cervix once and for all.”

NHS implosion

Interesting Lancet editorial. For the first time in the NHS's history, both nurses and ambulance staff will strike on February 6, unless a deal is reached over pay. Junior doctors will also vote on whether to strike. This is undoubtedly the most perilous moment for the NHS since its inception.

Frank Lloyd Wright inspired office furniture

Gonna see if the Texas Children’s administration will let me outfit my TCH Austin office in this new Frank Lloyd Wright remake from Steelcase. I love clean design. Hopefully they’re not too expensive.

Cough inspired design

Fascinating from Design Milk:

Inspiration can strike anywhere, any time. Take for example designer Adam Miklosi, who observed how his phone charger cable had wound and wrapped around a blister pack of sore throat lozenges while in his backpack in a manner that almost seemed as if they were intentionally designed for the function. Thus was born the co. cable organizer.

The holistic experience of elimination

Keeping in line with a design theme, Marc Newson, one of the world’s most famous furniture and industrial designers, has just unveiled his latest project: A beautifully designed bathroom. Japan is using these inspiring squat spots to fight the stereotype that public restrooms are nasty places.

Vax cards for $50 and shots for free

A Utah plastic surgeon and three associates were charged with selling fake Covid-19 vaccine cards for $50 apiece and destroying more than $28,000 worth of the vaccine doses, according to federal prosecutors.

How a Roomba took pictures of a woman on the toilet

This MIT Technology Review proves that Amazon’s Roomba is really just a device for capturing information about your house. The captured images and information reveal a new kind of data extraction supply chain that consumers are totally aware of.

So you’re paying for a device that scopes out your house. I’m surprised they don’t give away these sneaky robots for free.

Creative writing in health education

Roshni Beeharry, a medical educator and Writing for Wellbeing and Personal Development facilitator, reflects on how creative writing contributes to a well-rounded healthcare education. Loved this: the first reference is Dr. Jay Baruch, author of Tornado of Life, and long-time reader of Digital Exhaust!

Professionals who don’t work with machines will be replaced

So this is awkward after the creative writing reference just above: Long form Quillette viewpoint on ChatGPT and the future of the professions.

Thanks again for reading. Have a great week…