Artificial intelligence: Can it help us better grasp the idea of epilepsy? An exploratory dialogue with ChatGPT and DALL·E 2.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The conceptual definition of epilepsy has been changing over decades and remains debatable. We assessed how artificial intelligence (AI) conceives epilepsy and its impact on a person's life through verbal and visual material. METHODS: We asked the Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT, OpenAI) to define epilepsy and its impact. Prompts from ChatGPT were transferred to another AI tool DALL·E 2 (Open AI) to generate visual images based on verbal input. RESULTS: The ChatGPT definition on epilepsy relied on both its conceptual and practical definitions. It titled epilepsy to be "a neurological disorder characterized by recurring seizures" that has significant impact on patients' lives and is diagnosed after two or more unprovoked seizures or if there is a high risk of future seizures. ChatGPT presented nine issues - seizure-related injuries, limitations on daily activities, emotional and psychological impact, social stigma and isolation, educational and employment challenges, relationship and family dynamics, medication side effects, financial burden, and coexisting conditions - as major consequences of epilepsy. AI-generated images ranged from direct portrayals of these phenomena to abstract imagery but were mostly deprived of symbolic elements and visual metaphors. CONCLUSION: We showed that AI can identify and visually interpret the burden of epilepsy from medical, societal and economical perspectives. However, the imagery created is not figurative and does not follow allegorical narratives put forward by epilepsy specialists in similar studies. The ability of AI models to lead an in-depth discussion on epilepsy remains questionable and should be explored with more advanced AI tools.