Man thought he had dirt in eye—until a selfie to his wife revealed it was something dangerous
In an era where AI has been debated for its merits and demerits, some people have found answers to queries that can alter the course of their lives. Take Steven Suprise, for example, whose random ChatGPT search about his droopy eyes led to a shocking discovery in September 2025.
According to Newsweek, Thirty-six-year-old Steven noticed a small black spot in his peripheral vision a year ago, but he assumed it might be linked to the tear duct surgery he had undergone years ago. However, when the tests could not detect anything serious, he brushed it off and carried on with life, raising his three children with his wife, Laura. But a year later, one selfie revealed a serious illness that was hiding. In 2025, when Steven was doing his clinical rotation, he sent a selfie to his wife, where he noticed his eye looked a bit strange. "That’s when I noticed my eye was kind of drooping, like my eyes looked crooked. That scared me a little bit," Steven recalled.
As he felt ignored by the doctors, Steve decided to take an unusual route to find the answers; he put his symptoms on ChatGPT for an answer. The AI chatbot told him that "it might be something serious" and that he must get it checked soon. Shocked beyond comprehension, Steven found that he was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors confirmed that he had adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), a rare and aggressive cancer that affects fewer than one percent of cases like his. Fortunately, the PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan revealed that the cancer had not spread, as he underwent 30 rounds of radiation and five rounds of chemotherapy over several weeks.
While Steven's discovery through ChatGPT may have saved his life, experts have warned against relying on ChatGPT for medical decisions. A study authored by HL Walker, Shahi Ghani, Christoph Kuemmerli, et al. in 2023 for the Journal of Medical Internet Research assessed ChatGPT's ability to provide accurate medical information. The study found that the AI bot's responses were found to be approximately 60% accurate. The study concluded that while ChatGPT can provide information comparable to static internet sources, its reliability is limited, and it should not replace professional medical advice. As for Steven, he believes the AI chatbot can be a valuable tool, but it must be used with caution. “Don’t use it as a final answer, but it can help guide you. I even think doctors should use it. Maybe if mine had, they would have ordered an MRI sooner," he said. Currently, having finished his treatments, Steven is waiting for follow-up scans to confirm whether his treatments were successful.
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