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The viral Reddit post was written by ChatGPT.
This time, ChatGPT didn't save someone from having a heart attack. Credit: Silas Stein / picture alliance / Getty Images
ChatGPT saved someone's life according to a viral Reddit post that made the rounds last week. It correctly identified that the user was experiencing early symptoms of a heart attack, prompting the user to go to the emergency room and get help.
The only problem is that never happened. The Reddit post was written by ChatGPT.
Shortly after the original post was published, Redditor, u/sinebiryan admitted to the hoax, saying they "asked ChatGPT to write like a reddit post and the post is about a story about how ChatGPT saved my life." But not before the post received 50,000 upvotes and 2,000 comments.
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For a subreddit dedicated to ChatGPT, it's not surprising that this post got so much attention. It's also not surprising that so many ChatGPT enthusiasts were eager to believe in its life-saving capabilities. Regardless, it's a good reminder to not believe everything you read on the internet. Especially now that AI-generated text has become so difficult to identify.
The post, which was published in the ChatGPT subreddit, duped many. Users commented with their own experiences using ChatGPT, sharing how they use it as a therapist, for relationship advice, and dealing with toxic family members. "As a nurse who specialises in cardiac emergency, yes you were saved by your curiosity and chatgpt," said one user. "This is the power of ai and it’s increasingly showing its true potential."
But others weren't so convinced. Many users quickly speculated that the post was AI-generated, claiming that there are telltale signs, like the frequent use of hyphens, long prose, and a gut instinct that "something felt fishy." One user even compared the writing style of the post with the user's other post and concluded that the "[original poster's] style of writing in other posts does not match at all."
Despite many Redditors glorifying its life-saving uses, some simply refused to give ChatGPT that much credit even before finding out the post was a hoax. "You listened to your intuition here too, which also saved you," said one user. Others pointed out that the original poster also could've just googled the symptoms and received the same answer.
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on Twitter at @cecily_mauran.
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