Until last week, I had never tried ChatGPT. I’ve been aware of its existence and the many popular opinions of grandiose innovations and cultural destruction. Personally, I’ve avoided ChatGPT because it seems like a way to further separate ourselves from the present and the world around us. That is, until last week.
Some of my extended family was visiting for the weekend and my brother-in-law was sharing with me some bedtime stories using ChatGPT. Without going off course too much, it was shocking and amazing. ChatGPT can create an elaborate and eloquent bedtime story about basically anything and can do so with multiple input variations and criteria. After seeing this, I was interested in seeing how ChatGPT performed at other tasks.
My first thought was, how does ChatGPT perform at acupuncture versus an acupuncturist. Obviously, the computer cannot do the acupuncture procedure. It can, however, recommend treatment plans and protocols. As an expert acupuncturist, how does it compare to my skills?
The first query was just for fun: Using only words that begin with the letter A, explain acupuncture. In about 2 seconds, ChatGPT responded, “Aligning, activating, and applying, acupuncture addresses ailments, adjusting energy along anatomical acupoints.” That’s great! There are some grammar mistakes in the response, and the bot clearly used a word not beginning with the letter A, but it is still a solid answer. So now let’s get on to the hard stuff.
I next asked: What is the best acupuncture treatment for sciatica. ChatGPT responded, “Use local points Huantiao, located on the buttocks, and Shenshu, located on either side of the spine at the level of the waist. Use distal points Weizhong, in the crease behind the knee, and Yanglingquan, found just below the knee on the outer side of the leg. And use balancing points Hegu, located between the thumb and index finger, and Sanyinjiao, located above the inner ankle.” This response describes a very textbook answer to the question. All these acupuncture points are theoretically reasonable to try as a way to treat sciatica.
However, I would treat a patient with sciatica much differently. While I would incorporate the points Huantiao, Shenshu, and Weizhong. I would almost never use Yanglingquan, Hegu, and Sanyinjiao. In practice those three points rarely, if ever, help alleviate pain related to the sciatic nerve. Instead, I would add the points Ciliao (at the second sacral foramen – where the sciatic nerve leaves the spine and goes through the hips down to the leg), Pangguangshu (at the sacroiliac joint – where the hips meet the spine), and Zhibian (at the upper glute muscles – to be used in conjunction with Huantiao). All these additional acupuncture points are indispensable when treating sciatica.
My acupuncture treatment would yield far greater results than the recommendations by ChatGpt. For now, my job is safe from being taken over by the bots.