Try perplexity.ai for questions.

[Spinel_Cutter]

If you look at my profile picture, it shows a red gemstone. That is a red spinel, it's real and I bought it back in 1976 for $5. I've always assumed it was synthetic and I've been told by gemologists that it's "synthetic," because it has no inclusions, even up to 80x under a microscope.

Last week I was playing with perplexity.ai (a free lower grade ai) and I asked it how I could conclusively determine if it was natural. (Red spinels are, if they have no inclusions are extremely difficult to define as synthetic or natural--natural that's worth about $2,000 if synthetic it's worth about $2.

The ai said: Try a magnet, and I did. To my amazement the spinal was attracted to the magnet proving that it had iron in it, and NO synthetics do--it was natural. Woohooo.

How does this relate to PCa? Ask it questions and although (this ai, anyway) does not have access to the most recent data/studies, it does have access to quite a lot. And if I don't understand, I can ask it to simplify.

One caveat: It always does the: "Go ask your doc, bit." Fair enough, but to get deeper I've found that if I say, "stop with the go see the doc crap," it will.

YMMV and I find it rather fun, too, but then, uh....always check with your Practitioner (too).

And it might give you a really helpful answer on occasion--try it.

Btw, I'm about 85% of the way though GIA (Gemological Institute of America's Graduate Gemologist program) so when I say it's conclusively real, I'm 99.9% sure, but I'll still send it off to the GIA lab and they'll do x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to confirm it. But I've asked several graduate gemologists and not one ever said: "use a magnet." That's neat.

[Kaliber]

ima gonna preface this with the QOL prefix to appease the naysayers , if any.

First , ….. I read this and thought it was someone messing around with me. The circumnavigation thought train , fragmented to land exactly on target - where you wanted …feels like I’m looking in a mind mirror. Not the droid this, that, conclusion stuff. I mean , I’m serious … it’s pretty kewl. ( this will probably get a lot of chuckles here, remember those old “ suspicions confirmed “ cartoons ? ).

I have a paid access to the high level ChatAI , and now even, Apple has loaded their OS AI into my phone. For sure ChatAI is fast and can analyze things into oblivion … and present excellent analytics. I’ve never seen it stumble …. But even more capable AIs are coming along like wildfire and all better than the next past older version. I frequently ask it questions about my medical needs and experiences and it comes up with both protocol answers and out of the box new questions. Most recently I’ve asked a lot about interactions between meds / new meds and importantly mixed SEs.

So , yea brother …. Thanks for reminding / alerting the brothers … plus I’d like to say that Darryl ( one of the group owners ) has recently come out with his own ( professional ) AI resources for group members as well. His are noteworthy and well worth giving a look too.

Good post for the information gatherer’s on the group brother. Not saying AIs are the end all - be all but AIs do give helpful results much of the time.

❤️❤️❤️

[Tall_Allen]

"And it might give you a really helpful answer on occasion--try it." How would you judge if the medical response is "really helpful" or misinformation making you agnorant. BTW _ I like Perplexity more than ChatGPT because at least it tells you its sources. But it doesn't evaluate those sources, as a Cochrane Review does (with actual science).

[Spinel_Cutter in reply to Tall_Allen]

You know the very same way you know Tall_Allen. Look at the sources and judge those. If it's an article from a Canter Center of Excellence versus one from "Save_Your_Life_Buy_From_Us," you'll get a general ideal. I'll agree everything must be weighed and scrutinized, including what our docs tell us.

How does one access and use Cochrane Review? I used to have access to it, long ago, around 2008 when I worked for GM, we had about 50 occupational health clinics then and we all had access to it, and it was useful. I suspect that GM paid a lot for access.

[Tall_Allen in reply to Spinel_Cutter]

You don't know if there is more recent higher level-of-evidence and higher GRADE sources. You only know what it tells you it used, not what it didn't use.

Cochrane Reviews are published in peer-reviewed journals as part of the authors' due diligence in performing a meta-analysis.

[Nusch]

You can no try „deep research“ as an option within PERPLEXITY. Try it out, mist responses are amazing.

[Tbo29]

I tried most of the AI chatbots. Must say that Perplexity which uses the Deepsink engine does give more detailed and complete information, especially using the Pro research. Its important to ask the right questions of what you want to know. So I found it that it disagrees somehow with my Oncologist concerning my actual treatment. I already knew, but usually doctors aren't very literat with Computers, also she might get offended when I would show the results to her.

The AI confirmed to me that Italy is using a more bureaucratic approach with treatment than for instance Germany, thus not applying the latest findings.

[Retireddoc in reply to Tbo29]

"Doctors aren't very literate with computers" is an odd comment. Much older doctors probably are as about literate as the general population that age (maybe more so as doctors use computers all of the time in practice-not aware of any hospitals that don't use computers for all medical records). Younger physicians are very computer literate, just like most of the educated population.

[Tbo29 in reply to Retireddoc]

From my Bio you can see that I'm living in Italy, so I did refer to Italy. Should have stated this. 80% of the doctors in Italy do not even handle english. Even the younger ones. As an Computer expert I gave assistance to many doctors. So no odd comment. This is regretfully a handicap, as most literature and latest scienze info are in english. Even my Oncologist doesn't understands english nor can she handle her Computer out of the program she has to use in hospital.

[Spinel_Cutter in reply to Tbo29]

I'm contracted to US Department of Labor as a RN, overseeing Workers Compensation cases (injured Federal Workers). Over the years, on several occasions I've been very shocked. I've run into surgeons working in US that can speak English, but clearly cannot (or rather, refuse to) write or read English. In each case the doc finds an office staff member who becomes essentially a translator. There are very, very competent surgeons, but when there is an issue, forget it, and with several of these I've suggested that the injured worker simply find another surgeon.

I'd write a letter to the surgeon about an issue, but the response makes it clear as day that my letter was never read by the doc, not even looked at.

Interestingly, there seems to be a pattern, surgeon works in USA but own a high-scale clinic back in the home country. Scary.

The reality is that there is a shortage of doctors, nurses and quality staff and I suspect as time goes by, it's going to get worse. Soon, we'll simply be seeing an AI.... hmmm

[anonymoose2]

I use Grok 3 with think and deep search. The most powerful Ai in the world at present.

Google is so yesterday.

Very blessed to have that knowledge in my life.

Good luck on the stone!

[MateoBeach]

Cool about your spinel. I took the home GIA colored stone course and was not aware of the magnet effect.

[Spinel_Cutter in reply to MateoBeach]

*lol* neither was my GIA instructor, if I could, I'd upload a small video of that spinel being dragged about, on a little piece of Styrofoam (to drop friction to near zero) like a dog on a leash. See: gemstonemagnetism.com/ That little magnet cost me $7 and it's strong! It can actually pick up some garnets. If only there was some "hack," to cure us all!

[RMontana]

Perplexity is an amazing tool; I use it a lot! You can load an entire PDF medical report and ask it questions about what it all means and it will read, disassemble, evaluate and reply to each of your questions. It also allows you to pick which Ai platform you want to use, including Deep Seek (...passed on that one). It recently uploaded Deep Research which is even more detailed; it can take 20-30 minutes to come back with an extensive, wide ranging report. Perplexity also provides you the references it used to generate the Summary report you are relying on...but (there is always a but)...

It can be wrong! I have caught it making flat out mistakes in its conclusions. This has happened to me twice in the last 3 years, but it did occur. I then tell it that it misread the reference and it apologizes, stating it has corrected this error and will not repeat it (pretty freaky stuff)...but, when/ why do you check conclusions? If you can read all the references and make sure what the Summary says is corroborated in the documentation attached. But, if you have a Life to live and no time to do that, then choose when to check the result. For me, if the summary conclusion results in central challenges to the SOC you are receiving, or if it presents a new treatment regime not offered by your medical team, then double check the reference. Read the study abstract, or reference yourself; make sure the conclusion matches the summary!

So, use this tool; you wont ever, ever go back to a google search. You can ask Perplexity a question in paragraph form, include your background information, add (as I stated) a PDF of your medical report, choose which Ai platform you want..., then launch the search. In fact I need to be compensated for this post as I am shilling without remuneration.

Seriously, get this or any other Ai platform. Go into your Doctor's appointment 'locked and loaded' as we said back in the day. You will be amazed at how compliant, respectful and cooperative your doctor will be when you have the facts. I have found that they are more willing to write scripts for additional testing that previously they would just turn down as bunk requests.

That's it; church is out. TNX Rick

PS if you get Perplexity pop for the PRO version. Free is free and it works OK, but the PRO search is at another level.

[Spinel_Cutter in reply to RMontana]

Thanks, I'll try the PRO, it's #1 fun. And, #2, damned useful. I've been using it to ask for interactions with abi or orgovxy with OTC supplements like Curcumin (You had best bet, there is interaction, and the two do not play well together, to my disappointment because I'm a real + person about Curcumin + piprine (the piperine does not play well with abi/org, either)

It blows my mind and it modifies my "path." Doc says: 1 year abi/org + IMRT to lymph nodes and I'm doing + Brachy. My research indicates that with 6 months org (or leup) + IMRT that adding lyph IMRT will let 6 men survive to 10 years. So (guessing from memory) out of 100 men with lymph IMRT 76 survives, compared to 70 without lymph node. That means 14 men need to get IMRT such that one will survive to 10 years. I'm not impressed.

And that data appears to ignore PSMA-pet, so I'm leaning towards "no," on pelvic lymph node IMRT, and looking instead to doing some traveling every year or two, to whereever (Belgium) to get PSMA-pet for low cost.

I can't help but wonder how well AI will re-write PCa, and I hope we all get to see that.

[j-o-h-n]

Long vowel pair AI Sound Song l Phonics for English Education.

google.com/search?q=song+wi...

(Dancing is optional)

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n