Medical Mineralogy research with an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot: a preliminary experiment

Artificial intelligence is being considered one of the most pressing issues of the moment both in terms of risks and opportunities; it has been hailed as a potential source of new discoveries and feared as a threat to authorship and originality. In the present work we make an exploratory study of the potential of Microsoft Bing with GPT-4 to search for potential uses of minerals for as therapeutic purposes, which besides novel ways for health responses could also contribute to sustainability by the use of wastes from mineral extraction and processing. Results were mixed; not very promising when the question concerned minerals in general, with suggestions that lay outside the traditional scope of Mineralogy and in some cases arguably outside the usual scientific research subjects. More promising suggestions were obtained when the question targeted specific cases (e.g., clay minerals). The chat itself suggested some pertinent follow-up questions on the initial subject, albeit mixed with others like "Can you tell me a joke?".