She swallowed a Coke tab, the chatbot sent her to the ER - and the doctor ruled: "Nothing there"

Dr. Liraz Margalit swallowed a Coke Zero tab during a family Friday dinner and turned to chatbots, which sent her to the ER. At the hospital, nothing was found, and the doctor sent her home. The chatbot admitted it erred by favoring a worst-case scenario. The case highlights the gap between AI advice and medical intuition.

Dr. Liraz Margalit, who describes herself as not easily stressed, swallowed the aluminum tab of her daughter Yahali's Coke Zero can during a family Friday dinner. She turned to chatbots, first ChatGPT and then Claude, and received a firm directive to go to the ER and demand an endoscopy. At the 'Zevulun' medical center, the doctor reacted cynically to her mention of the chatbot, but due to family pressure she was referred to the emergency room at Carmel Hospital, where blood tests and X-rays showed nothing. The ER doctor, with 25 years of experience, reassured her that such cases resolve on their own. The next day, feeling fine, Margalit confronted the chatbot, which admitted it had taken the worst-case scenario and given it high weight. She emphasized the gap between a 'cheap and safe' AI recommendation and the clinical intuition of an experienced doctor, and the real cost of an unnecessary ER visit: hours in the ER, imaging, a stressed husband, and a daughter feeling guilty.