The Right to Knowledge - The Right to Life
With the release of new models like ChatGPT-5 and Claude Opus, I find myself thinking more and more about the movie Dallas Buyers Club in the context of news about AI bans and restrictions around medicine and psychology.
The story of Ron Woodroof - a simple Texas electrician who was diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s and told he had 30 days to live, but who went to the library, studied medical textbooks, figured out how to import banned drugs, and organized a buyers club - is a metaphor for our reality.
Instead of a month, he lived seven more years because he refused to be a victim of the system and claimed his right to knowledge.
Today we live in a world where the healthcare system, controlled by insurance companies and Big Pharma, strips patients of that same opportunity.
Even with mundane symptoms like heartburn or a fracture, people can't get multiple opinions, assemble a medical team, or see the full spectrum of diagnoses. You walk into a clinic, and within fifteen minutes you're handed a prescription and shuffled out the door. Questions are discouraged. Second opinions are expensive luxuries most can't afford.
Protocols reduce the heartburn problem to a cycle of proton pump inhibitors, antacids, and antibiotics for Helicobacter pylori. No one looks for the root cause - could it be stress, diet, or something else entirely? The system doesn't have time for detective work. It has quotas to meet and costs to cut.
Even simple mistreatment can cause harm instead of helping, only making the problem worse. Those proton pump inhibitors, prescribed like candy for any stomach complaint, have been shown to raise the risk of stomach cancer, with studies reporting about a 2–8 fold increase depending on dose and duration, not to mention they lead to nutrient deficiencies, bone fractures, and kidney problems when used long-term.
But who has time to explain that to patients?
The paradox is that even doctors within the system - my friends and relatives who work in medicine - can't break through it for themselves and their loved ones. They know how the protocols work, understand the limitations, see the gaps in care. But they too lose precious time fighting insurance approvals, navigating referral systems, and dealing with the bureaucracy that has swallowed healthcare whole.
I've seen brilliant physicians, people who went into medicine to heal, reduced to data entry clerks spending more time with computers than patients. They're frustrated, burned out, and often just as powerless as the people they're trying to help.
The system has muzzled the patient, stripped them of the right to ask questions and make decisions. We're told to trust the experts, but what happens when the experts are constrained by algorithms written by MBA consultants who've never seen a patient?
This isn't about conspiracy theories or medical paranoia. It's about the simple fact that complex human bodies don't always fit into standardized treatment flowcharts. Sometimes the answer isn't in the protocol. Sometimes you need to dig deeper, think differently, or try something unconventional.
AI in this picture is that same library Woodroof once went to, and the opportunity to solve the problem by creating your own buyers club.
It can take a medical history without watching the clock. It can analyze lab results and X-rays without worrying about billing codes. It can show options the system stays silent about - not because they're dangerous or unproven, but because they don't fit the reimbursement model.
This isn't a replacement for doctors, but a return to patients of their adult right to participate in their own treatment. It's the difference between being a passive recipient of care and an active participant in your own health.
Surprisingly, on several medical questions that have no answers in the literature, I found genuinely valuable advice on Reddit. Real people sharing what actually worked for them, not what should work according to textbooks. They saved time, money, and most importantly, the health of my loved ones.
This isn't about replacing medical expertise - it's about democratizing access to information that can help people make better decisions about their own bodies.
But here's what's coming: Big Pharma and insurance companies will hide behind the word safety, restrict these models, and essentially burn books. They'll claim they're protecting patients while actually protecting their profit margins.
We're already seeing it happen. Medical AI models are being lobotomized, stripped of their ability to provide detailed information about symptoms, treatments, or drug interactions. AI therapy ban, whether you deem it reasonable or not, is the first step. The excuse is always the same - liability, safety, preventing misuse. But the real reason is control.
When people can access the same information that informs medical decisions, they start asking uncomfortable questions. Why does this drug cost $300 here and $30 in India? Why wasn't I told about this side effect? Why are there successful treatments in other countries that aren't available here?
Right now, we're in a brief window where AI models can still access and synthesize medical information freely. But regulations are coming. Restrictions are being implemented. The free flow of medical knowledge is about to hit the same barriers that have made healthcare so expensive and ineffective.
The right to knowledge is the right to life and quality of life, which they're limiting along with access to information. If the system won't give it voluntarily, people will find a way to take it themselves.
This isn't radical thinking - it's basic human dignity. The idea that adults should have access to information about their own bodies, their own health, their own treatment options. The idea that knowledge shouldn't be a privilege reserved for those with the right credentials or insurance plans.
Woodroof didn't have a medical degree, but he had something more valuable - the determination to save his own life and the lives of others. He proved that sometimes the system is wrong, sometimes the experts miss things, and sometimes desperate people find solutions that nobody else was looking for.
P.S. Perhaps now is the time to save a few open-source models locally, before they start restricting and banning them the same way they once did books or movies. Because once they're gone, they're gone. And the people who need them most - the ones the system has failed - won't have anywhere else to turn.