Description: Joseph Neal Riley reportedly used Perplexity AI to self-diagnose a rare complication of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and, based on that output, allegedly delayed an oncologist-recommended Ven-Obi treatment for about a year. His son, Benjamin Riley, alleges that Perplexity misstated the medical research it cited, a conclusion he purportedly later confirmed with the study's authors.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Perplexity AI developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Joseph Neal Riley , Benjamin Riley , Epistemic integrity and People seeking medical advice.
Alleged implicated AI system: Perplexity AI
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1426
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-01-05
Editors
Daniel Atherton
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First, thank you to everyone who reached out to me over the holidays to offer their condolences on my father's passing. One touching consequence of writing a newsletter is receiving words of support from people I've never met in person, a c…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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