ChatGPT is cool, but for the next version I hope they make a ResearchAssistantGPT

Submitted by CommunismDoesntWork t3_zy9soz in singularity

The problem with pushing the boundaries of human knowledge is that the boundary is getting exponentially larger and more complicated. It would be nice if an AI could help make sense of all the available research. Imagine if it consumed every research paper the day it gets published, and can alert a scientist of a new finding that's hyper-relevant to their work. It could then explain the new work to the scientist, and possibly even offer it's own opinion on the right direction to take.

The motivation for this post was this relatively poor conversation I had with ChatGPT on a pretty simple question. It defaults to ultra high level summaries, and won't give you any details on the science:

Me:

>If vaccines program our immune system to fight certain things, what do we call something that deprograms our immune system in order to stop the immune system from fighting a certain thing?

ChatGPT:

>There are several different ways that the immune system can be "deprogrammed" to stop it from fighting a particular substance or pathogen. One way this can be done is through the use of immunosuppressive medications, which are designed to inhibit or suppress the immune system's response to a particular substance or infection. These medications are often used to treat autoimmune diseases, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues, or to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. Another way the immune system can be "deprogrammed" is through the use of allergy shots or allergy desensitization, where small amounts of the substance that triggers an allergic reaction are gradually introduced to the body over time in order to train the immune system to tolerate it.

Me:

>Does the desensitization technique for depromming the immune system work for things other than allergies? For instance, can it cure autoimmune disorders?

ChatGPT:

>Allergy desensitization, also known as allergy immunotherapy, is a treatment that involves gradually introducing small amounts of the substance that triggers an allergic reaction (allergen) to the body over time in order to reduce the severity of allergic symptoms. This treatment is specifically designed to target allergies, and it is not typically used to treat autoimmune disorders. > >Autoimmune disorders are conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks and damages the body's own tissues. These conditions are often treated with medications that suppress or inhibit the immune system's response, such as corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, or immune modulators. Allergy desensitization is not typically used to treat autoimmune disorders because it involves gradually increasing the body's exposure to a specific allergen, which may not be appropriate or safe in autoimmune conditions where the immune system is attacking the body's own tissues.

Me:

>Right, but why exactly can't it work to treat autoimmune disorders?

Chat GPT:

>Allergy desensitization involves gradually increasing the body's exposure to a specific allergen in order to reduce the severity of allergic symptoms. This treatment is designed to target allergies, which are caused by an immune system response to a particular substance that is normally harmless. In contrast, autoimmune disorders are caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking and damaging the body's own tissues. Allergy desensitization may not be effective or appropriate for treating autoimmune disorders because it involves increasing the body's exposure to a specific substance, rather than reducing the immune system's response to the body's own tissues. > >Furthermore, autoimmune disorders are often treated with medications that suppress or inhibit the immune system's response, such as corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, or immune modulators. These medications work by decreasing the activity of the immune system, which can help to reduce inflammation and prevent the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues. Allergy desensitization, on the other hand, involves gradually increasing the body's exposure to a specific allergen in order to train the immune system to tolerate it, rather than decreasing the activity of the immune system.

Me: >That doesn't answer my question though. I'm looking for a cure to autoimmune disorders. Suppressing the entire immune system isn't a cure and doesn't degrogramm the immune system to a specific substance. And so if allergy desensitization can cure allergies by gradually exposing the body to the allergy, why can't the same process of gradually exposing the immune system to the body's own tissue deprogram the immune system and thus cure autoimmune disorders?

ChatGPT: >It is important to note that there is currently no known cure for autoimmune disorders, and treatment typically involves managing symptoms and attempting to control the immune system's response to the body's own tissues. > >The goal of treatment for autoimmune disorders is often to reduce inflammation and prevent the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues. While allergy desensitization involves gradually increasing the body's exposure to a specific allergen in order to train the immune system to tolerate it, this approach may not be effective or appropriate for treating autoimmune disorders because it involves increasing the body's exposure to a specific substance, rather than decreasing the immune system's response to the body's own tissues. > >Autoimmune disorders are often treated with medications that suppress or inhibit the immune system's response, such as corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, or immune modulators. These medications work by decreasing the activity of the immune system, which can help to reduce inflammation and prevent the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues. However, these medications do not "deprogram" the immune system to stop attacking the body's own tissues in a specific way. Instead, they work by suppressing the immune system's overall activity, which can help to reduce inflammation and prevent the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues.

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Belostoma t1_j24yu83 wrote

New research hyper-relevant to mine is likely to cite at least one of my papers, so I already get an alert. And ChatGPT wouldn't write a better summary of it than the authors did in the abstract. So I don't see the specific case you describe being especially useful.

There are many times when my research takes me into a new sub-field for just one or two questions ancillary to my own work, and I could see a more advanced, research-oriented form of ChatGPT (especially one that can cite and quote its sources) being potentially useful for the early stages of exploring a new idea and an unfamiliar body of work.

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CommunismDoesntWork OP t1_j2531og wrote

>being potentially useful for the early stages of exploring a new idea and an unfamiliar body of work.

Exactly, this is what I had in mind when I was quizzing ChatGPT on the immune system. I wanted it to teach me everything there is to know about the immune system basically, which is something I know almost nothing about. If you keep asking ChatGPT "why", it will eventually bottom out and won't go into any more detail, whereas I imagine a research orientated GPT could keep going deeper and deeper until it hits the current limit of our understanding about a particular subject.

>New research hyper-relevant to mine is likely to cite at least one of my papers, so I already get an alert. >There are many times when my research takes me into a new sub-field for just one or two questions ancillary to my own work

But how do you know a completely separate area isn't relevant to your work? Not a sub field, but a completely separate area. Let's say a team is trying to cure Alzheimer's. At the same time, a different team is working to cure aids. The aids group makes a discovery about biology that at first only looks applicable to aids, and so only people studying aids learn about it. But as the alzheimer's team uncovers more raw facts about Alzheimer's, they uncover a fact that when combined with the aids discovery could create a cure for alzheimer's. But then many years go by without anyone making the connection, or worse case scenario the alzheimer's team randomly rediscovers the same thing the aids team discovered years ago. Where I think a research assistant GPT would really shine is by being able to absorb all of these independent data points and instantly making the connections. If it even speeds up research by a week it would totally be worth it.

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Belostoma t1_j256ays wrote

>I imagine a research orientated GPT could keep going deeper and deeper until it hits the current limit of our understanding about a particular subject.

The problem is that you're kind of running up agains the limits of what the tech behind ChatGPT can do. It doesn't understand anything it's saying; it's just good at predicting what word should come next when it has lots of training data to go on. When you start talking about technical details that have maybe only been addressed in a few scientific publications, it takes some understanding of the meaning behind the words to assemble those details into a coherent summary; it can't be done based on language patterns alone. Even something like knowing which details are extraneous and which belong in a summary requires a large sample size to see which pieces of language are common to many sources and which are specific to one document. There's not enough training data for the deep dives you seek.

>Where I think a research assistant GPT would really shine is by being able to absorb all of these independent data points and instantly making the connections.

I think this is a great possibility for a research assistant AI eventually, but it will probably require advances in a different type of AI than the language models ChatGPT is using.

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SgathTriallair t1_j25bvt9 wrote

This is exactly it. A language model can't get predictions when only a handful of people have ever talked about a specific topic, which will happen with deep scientific topics.

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CommunismDoesntWork OP t1_j259z6s wrote

ChatGPT has been shown to have problem solving and analytical reasoning skills. It can also explain the reason behind it's answers. It can be confidently incorrect sometimes, but ChatGPT is for sure more than just "predicting what word should come next". There's a spark of AGI in it, even if it's not perfect. Transformers have been shown to be turing complete, so there's nothing fundamentally limiting it.

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Belostoma t1_j25kjax wrote

>It can also explain the reason behind it's answers. It can be confidently incorrect sometimes, but ChatGPT is for sure more than just "predicting what word should come next".

But the explanation of the reasoning is just a part of what should come next, based on other people having explained reasoning similarly in similar contexts. It's still basically a pattern-matching autocomplete, just an insanely good one.

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Surur t1_j252j70 wrote

That is actually a pretty good doctor-level answer, though I understand you are looking for research scientist level .

I think you have a good idea.

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Frumpagumpus t1_j257ayd wrote

meta did this and then shut down the public beta like a month ago

Galactica

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turnip_burrito t1_j25neu3 wrote

It was pretty inaccurate too.

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DukkyDrake t1_j25qlwf wrote

These models are good at probabilistic prediction of human text, that isn't the same as truth. 100% accuracy at that task doesn't mean what you expect it to mean, it doesn't mean the results are necessarily coherent in any way.

These AI tools aren't true AI.

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Signager t1_j25n3nj wrote

Also "My knowledge is based on the text that was available to me at the time of my training, which was in 2021, and I am not able to browse the internet or access new information."

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Yangerousideas t1_j27fpsu wrote

It can summarize specific research papers. It seems really detailed on the level of specific research papers. Check this out:

Me: Suggest to me five research papers about immunosuppressive drugs.

ChatGPT:

  1. "Immunosuppressive therapies for autoimmune diseases" by M. Mary M. Lee and Ian N. Bruce. This review paper discusses the various immunosuppressive drugs that are used to treat autoimmune diseases, including their mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy, and potential side effects.

  2. "The role of calcineurin inhibitors in organ transplantation" by Mark D. Stegall and David H. Sachs. This review paper discusses the use of calcineurin inhibitors (such as cyclosporine and tacrolimus) in the context of organ transplantation, including their mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, and potential side effects.

  3. "Immunosuppressive therapy for inflammatory bowel disease" by Tariq Iqbal and David S. Rampton. This review paper discusses the use of immunosuppressive drugs in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including the mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy, and potential side effects of various agents.

  4. "Immunosuppressive drugs in the treatment of multiple sclerosis" by Robert H. Fox and Peter A. Calabresi. This review paper discusses the use of immunosuppressive drugs in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, including the mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy, and potential side effects of various agents.

  5. "Immunosuppressive therapy for autoimmune hepatitis" by Paolo Caraceni and Francesco Negro. This review paper discusses the use of immunosuppressive drugs in the treatment of autoimmune hepatitis, including the mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy, and potential side effects of various agents.

Me: What are the main takeaways from your first suggestion?

ChatGPT: The main takeaways from the first suggestion, "Immunosuppressive therapies for autoimmune diseases" by M. Mary M. Lee and Ian N. Bruce, are:

  1. Immunosuppressive drugs are used to treat autoimmune diseases, which are characterized by an overactive immune system that attacks the body's own tissues.

  2. There are several different types of immunosuppressive drugs, including corticosteroids, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and biologics. Each type of drug works in a different way to suppress the immune system and control inflammation.

  3. The choice of immunosuppressive drug and the specific dosing regimen will depend on the type of autoimmune disease being treated, as well as the patient's individual characteristics.

  4. Immunosuppressive drugs can be effective in controlling autoimmune diseases, but they can also have significant side effects, including an increased risk of infection and an increased risk of certain types of cancer. It is important for patients to discuss the potential risks and benefits of these drugs with their healthcare providers.

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SgathTriallair t1_j25bb5a wrote

Yes a research focused system would be amazing. This is going to be very difficult though because it needs to be able to create context categories on the fly and recognize what does and doesn't go in them.

In a traditional system we tag documents with topics that they relate to. A language model like this though is more sophisticated than these tags. It would need to recognize which papers relate to the topic at hand to create a meta summary. Having it propose new research or give me insights is even more difficult because that requires it to understand the reality that undergirds the papers. Current a language model has no way to understand that Portugal is real but Middle Earth is not.

I do think that this idea is one of the biggest benefits that these systems can bring to society so I'm hopeful they can build it.

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d00m_sayer t1_j24mfz7 wrote

The only poor person here is you who cannot write a proper prompt.

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CommunismDoesntWork OP t1_j24pp39 wrote

By all means, show me the right prompt

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d00m_sayer t1_j24si9f wrote

Here is the first answer I got after writing a proper prompt :

"I would say that the term you are looking for is "immunosuppression." Immunosuppression refers to the suppression or weakening of the immune system, which can be caused by various factors such as certain medications, diseases, or therapies. In some cases, immunosuppression may be necessary to prevent the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues, as in the case of autoimmune diseases or organ transplantation. Immunosuppressive drugs are used to prevent the body from rejecting a transplanted organ, for example, by reducing the activity of the immune system.

It's important to note that while immunosuppression can be useful in certain situations, it also comes with risks, as the body's ability to fight off infections and other diseases is compromised. Therefore, immunosuppression should generally be used cautiously and under medical supervision"

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CommunismDoesntWork OP t1_j2515oz wrote

I got that same answer multiple times from ChatGPT, as you can see in my post. Immunosuppression doesn't equal deprogramming the immune system. It's like comparing a hammer to a scalpel. It also doesn't answer my question why exactly gradual desensitization can't cure autoimmune disorders. I wanted to know the exact science behind those two things, down to the molecular level. Basically, I wanted to keep asking why until it gave me a complete understanding of biology. My problem is that ChatGPT wouldn't go into lower levels of detail, and instead got stuck repeating these same ultra high level summaries. The best way I can describe it is ChatGPT would be great at writing medium articles, but not great at talking about bleeding edge research.

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