A 49-year-old man reported that an AI chatbot helped save his life after it correctly identified his severe abdominal pain as appendicitis, even though an earlier ER visit had attributed it to acid reflux. The Reddit user, known as Tykjen, described experiencing intense abdominal pain for 24 hours. He said the pain felt constant and razor-like, and was so severe that he could not lie flat. He had no fever or bleeding, which made the presentation less typical. During his first ER visit, his abdominal exam appeared normal, and he was sent home with an acid blocker.
The pain remained at an eight out of ten. Still unsure and increasingly worried, he turned to an AI chatbot named Grok, with which he had an ongoing conversation thread. After reviewing his symptoms, the AI warned him that the pattern was concerning for a perforated ulcer or an atypical form of appendicitis. It urged him to…
