Re: Reading the example which looks like a pathology report...
As far as I could determine the translation was accurate enough
MD here. Honestly? Errmmm... Not really.
Reading them side by side, a lot of the meaning got lost. Just to mention a few: the original text describes a contiously ongoing process, where the dumbed down version presents it as an end result, something stationary. Furthermore, it described damage, thickening of the tissue *between* the alveoli, the small lung sacks where oxygen is taken in, and CO2 expelled. The dumb text looses this distinction, throws everything "in the lung proximity" on one heap. Imagine this as a process over a membrane: if the membrane is thicker, this process becomes more hard. The "scarring" (different process, but hey) getting thicker of that "membrane" is because of a continuously ongoing infectious process against a "trigger". This trigger can be, yes, cigarette smoke, but also many other things like for example coal dust, asbestos, diesel fumes, pigeon fungi, solvents in paints and glues, and loads more, you get the idea. That oxygen needs to get in your blood, so it can be distributed across your body. But the walls of your vessels also get thicker because of this "out of control" infectious process. So your "sats" go down (measured with that clothes peg thing on your finger), you feel out of breath more and more. Now, did that text give you that?
I do understand this is a dumbing down tool, but then we also come into the topic of what is dumbing down? How to dumb down. And most important, why to dumb down. This is also an issue what I have seen (lost) when people use LLMs for for example making a quick abstract of a full text. Meaning is lost. And more scary, meaning is interpreted differently, and thus changed. Why this IMHO is worrying is...
For example: globally a physician has the legal obligation to get patient consent before treatment. For that (s)he has to explain what is going on, what the (best) intervention is, and ask the patient whether (s)he would like to proceed as suggested/ advised. Of course, it is critical in this process that patient understands what is said, so (s)he can make an educated decision. That's why you are always asked (I hope) if you are happy, and whether you have any questions.
The text here could not be used for that, because a lot of its meaning is lost. So yeah, sure it "broadly" describes what is written. But is it properly "translated"? Personally I would not spend the Wattage/ energy on it. But hey, this is Google trying to sell you something, so you know what that means.
As it is I suspect most radiology and pathology reports are routinely "machine assisted" or at least copy and paste.
Yes, you are right there. And if not "on the machine" when writing it down, then also in the head of the diagnosing physician. We all do something (again, I hope) called DD, differential diagnosis, which basically is a SOP for diagnosing, making sure you tick all boxes and consider options and alternatives. Just like any problem solving process I suppose...