Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated….. the pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

I recently discovered — to my great amusement – that someone referred to me as “the late Ronny Allan.” While I appreciate the dramatic flair, I’d like to reassure everyone that I’m still very much alive, caffeinated, and actively moderating, educating, and occasionally ranting about neuroendocrine cancer. To be fair, I do spend a lot of time digging through esoteric subjects such as pathology reports and clinical trial data, so perhaps someone mistook my silence for eternal rest. Or maybe they just assumed that anyone who’s been advocating this long must’ve passed the baton – or passed on entirely! Either way, I’m flattered. “The late Ronny Allan” has a certain gravitas. I might even start signing my blogs that way, just to keep people on their toes. Spoiler alert, I got it from AI!

I’ve been dabbling with AI for a few months now, assessing its utility in helping me research. Generally, I think it has great potential and I’m actively using it. However, I do notice once in a while, that it brings up a real ‘howler’ including a reference to me as “the late Ronny Allan…..”. Only last week it told me Professor Martyn Caplin was practicing out of a hospital 200 miles north of where he works in Royal Free London. Clearly someone, or some misinterpretation online, caused that confusion and AI was not quite able to build the rest of that jigsaw. In fact I told my AI tool several times about important things it had missed or got wrong from the answers I requested. Thankfully it learns and I do see improvements over time when repeating similar questions. Worryingly though, it learns from the people interacting with it and I include myself in that statement. BUT in my defence, I only use really good sources, so it is indirectly learning from the top guys. But I do worry about who it is learning from……. In a similar vein, if you’re using it, check where it is getting the information from (ask it to reference everything) and then check those references for dates and the authors, you’ll be surprised where it gets stuff. But it has great potential if you’re careful what you ask and be specific what you ask, context is everything in cancer, particularly the heterogenous collection called Neuroendocrine Neoplasms. Always thoroughly interrogate it! Always check where it is getting information from – just ask it!

I hope you like my lead picture? Spookily, I’m writing this on Halloween 2025, the day after my 70th Birthday. A Facebook memory came up yesterday showing this picture which was taken in my local pub for a 60th birthday lunch with my close family. The pub was decked out for Halloween the following day. I could not resist the shot!

Have a great Halloween all!

By the way, I let Chris loose on this Facebook page yesterday. She drafted and posted it without any intervention from me! But just to assure you, this is me writing this post and I’m very much alive 🙂