A new way to address your concerns!

[creech]

Hey everyone! We’re excited to give y’all a new way to answer your pregnancy questions through Plexus, an AI platform that the r/amipregnant subreddit has partnered with.

Plexus stores all of the important information we’ve shared in this subreddit. Simply enter your concerns into the tool, submit, and the AI will be able to generate the most relevant information from the subreddit for your situation!

It’s also a place to share your own tips/reflections/important information that people have given you in the comments. Help us help each other out, so be sure to add information for others to know too!

Below are the steps to use the tool:

1. Click on this link! It works best in Chrome and Safari
2. You’ll arrive at the home page, then click “log in”
3. Sign in through Google (this is just to verify that you’re not a bot)
4. Follow the onboarding, then add your concerns or tips to share! You'll be able to see relevant information from there

Let us know if you have any questions! I (@zeekmul) can help you get started and would love your feedback as well!

 

[vmonica]

@creech How are you ensuring user's privacy is being protected?

What AI models are you using to generate answers/suggestions?

Why would you force users to sign in instead of using a captcha to verify human users vs bots.

All of this sounds extremely fishy especially since your account is less than a year old.

I think if you are legit you'd be able to answer these questions transparently.

Is there a public github repo where users can look at and verify the code you are using?

Editing to add:

I'm a programmer and I know how easily people can unwittingly give up their info when they would prefer not to.

Using AI to help generate relevant answers is cool on paper. Forcing users to log in using Google when there are many other free and anonymous ways of verifying humans vs bots is super risky in certain political climates. I think you should reconsider how your lack of transparency comes across as yet another way to hoover up people's data (and in this case very sensitive data that can have very real legal implications based on where they live).

I'd advise users of this subreddit against participating in this AI platform, until they are able to answer these very real and very important concerns.

 

[vmonica]

Replying to add that I took a look at the privacy policy of Plexus to check it out.

Link to the policy:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JvcOJpZJTIXtUfVmN3PVEtYG4POcKjNjVePKJC8WpW8/mobilebasic

TL;DR: Here is the most relevant portion:

"While Plexus has the technical ability to access private content, we agree to never access private content without written or verbal consent from you - excluding cases where we are compelled by legal authorities."

Deeply concerning that users will have to sign in to check the info using plexus compromising their privacy and possibly exposing themselves to legal action should Plexus be compelled to hand over its data.

When instead, you could create a comprehensive FAQ that is pinned to this subreddit which would probably be more useful and it would ensure user's anonymity is kept intact.

As it stands there is also no way to actually test whether the AI model you are using will actually give out accurate and useful responses/resources (without using it and compromising people's privacy). Unless there is public a repo where people can verify the source code?

So, once again I caution users of this subreddit against using this platform until these concerns are addressed.

 

[misjessie]

@vmonica I'm surprised there aren't more comments like yours. With everything happening in the US right now with regard to reproductive healthcare, it's baffling that a sub where most visitors don't want to be pregnant would willingly contribute to the creation of a database of pregnancy-related information linked to Google accounts, opening up users - many who are young and scared - to serious legal consequences.

 

[ahcadvocacy]

@misjessie I hear you. Digital privacy is an uphill battle, one that starts in a user's own home. If somebody is connecting without a VPN, they're at risk - even if they're using a browser's incognito mode. If they're posting/typing in things, they're at more risk then if they're just reading information. If you have a cellphone, location tracking is a major concern. Everything comes with risk - including not seeking information, help, and medical services. Our subreddit, while it contributes to the digital trail, ultimately can help people identify pregnancies sooner - when they typically have more options.

Re Plexus, we get a lot of repeat posts in the subreddit. If somebody could type their query and immediately get 3 very closely related situations with all sorts of good answers, I think that is ultimately good for the end users. It's less reliant on the temporal nature of our forum, and the 'search' is built in. I'm not sure if you've looked at the tool, but, we're also helping them test.

Re, Google specifically, they do not have the worst track record ever. Low bar, I know. Location history has been updated to automatically delete entries relating to a variety of clinics.

Speaking about our subreddit specifically, we have a lot users from countries that block sexual health websites. As Reddit is flagged as a social network, it allows us an exemption and to and sneak under the bars of country wide firewalls. It's a very small corner of the internet, but, it's part of the reason I put the work in her that I do.

Our wiki could use some work, but, it's mostly me who does that. We could set up a resource page for digital privacy basics, I need a page on sperm and how shitty they are surviving everything. That said, I made the whole wiki in TFAB, and yeah. Some people do not want a static resource - they want to talk to a human.

 

[misjessie]

@ahcadvocacy I totally get that. I don’t know the ins and outs of the subreddit’s setup, but it seems that logging having a warning about using a VPN or private browser could help. An auto mod with some frequently asked questions (like how soon can a pregnancy test be trusted) might help too.

FWIW I’ve read a ton of the wiki on TFAB and love it, and I’ve also really appreciated your contributions about pregnancy and anti-fat bias. So your hard educational work does not go unnoticed!

 

[ahcadvocacy]

@misjessie It's mostly a matter of time - I have some understanding of privacy and security issues, but, I'd still have trouble setting up a VPN.

We have a wiki over here - we don't have it stickied, it's kind of incomplete, but it's a handy reference for helpers to link relevant sections. Got a whole page on when to test, and why we're always say 2-3 weeks. Automod is fine, but, the more automod is triggered the less likely somebody is to get a human on the case - and people really appreciate the human. It's all part of why I said sure to the plexus folks - if they are able to 'generate' a wiki users could interact with, it could be a handy resources.

Thanks, that's very kind of you to say. Although I have no idea what I said about pregnancy anywhere, I almost never talk about that bit!

 

[nikorasu95]

@ahcadvocacy Please can someone give me two cents about my situation. I’m really loosing my mind, and finding it hard to trust my negatives due to the fact that I’ve had ongoing left lower abdomen cramping that shoots down to my legs, since my first ‘spotting bout’ both my ovaries seem to be throbbing when I put my hand on them (this was confirmed by a friend too), my nipples have gotten darker and since the incident, I’ve had an extremely light spotting (between brown to bright red) that only goes down in toilet, barely gets down on pad) a day or two late from my actual period date; lasting 4 days roughly. The period is the most symptom that is freaking me out, because I’m otherwise very irregular although I have PCOS (no cysts just follicles)

About the encounter & testing

The encounter was a NO PIV, external fingering including grazing of the hole but that made me uncomfortable so I asked him to stop, with potential cum on hands. See I had finished him off, and unsure of his hand placement, but he did buckle and belt his clothes before he got to me and pushed my clothes aside.

Anyways —————-

Testing:

(29th of may) (4 weeks after encounter date, 3 week after period spotting) at night (Indonesia)

(18th of June) (7 week after encounter date, 6 weeks from period spotting) first morning urine (Egypt)

(30th of June) (8 week from encounter date, 7 week from spotting) after 2 hour hold (london)

(1st of July) (week 10 from encounter, week 9 from period) mid day (london)

(1st of July) (week 10 from encounter, week 9 from period) at doctors office (london)

With doctor: (1st of july) BLOOD WORK done (week 10 from encounter, week 9 from period) (london) blood test was

 

[creech]

@vmonica Hi there, thank you for your questions! More than happy to clarify everything. We’re programmers too, so we respect your caution. Hope every subreddit has someone as thoughtful as you to vet new technology and consider how to improve the community.

I'm compiling resources and informations to answer your questions as thoroughly as possible and will post it to this thread when completed. Thank you!

 

[creech]

TL;DR - We set up Plexus for the r/amipregnant community after lots of feedback from community members and working with one of the moderators ( @ahcadvocacy ). Many users were scrolling for a long time through the main feed, struggling to find the right info / connect over shared experiences.

The couple standards you point out (email authentication, private codebase) have to do with our ethical standards as a public benefit corp and the power of the AI we use(OpenAI API).

Public Benefit Corp. We set up Plexus as a public benefit corporation so we could make a couple guarantees:Unlike many other companies that leverage AI technology, people keep ownership over the data they provide when using our internet tools.We want to be able to work with meaningful communities with the highest needs (e.g., r/amipregnant), regardless of their financial resources.

Emails/Google verification The primary ask for an email from everyone who participates is in order to make sure that there aren’t bots on the platform and ensure that in the case someone participates hatefully, we’re able to try to reach out to them. (If you’re someone who isn’t frustrated with feed-scrolling or just don’t want to share their email, Plexus probably isn’t for you!)

Codebase The power of the connection-making tech we’re building and the potentially harmful consequences if used with mal-intent is also our reason for not publicly sharing our codebase. The aim is to prevent harmful use. We’re not the first organization to keep powerful code from public access in order to prevent hateful use. (See OpenAI, Anthropic, and even Reddit!).That said, your email won’t be public to anyone else on the platform and won’t be used by us unless hateful or wrongful use is an issue! The point is just to help you find info that was already posted publicly to r/amipregant, faster.

Recent Reddit account. It was in the past few months that I learned of a couple high-impact Reddit communities where community members are struggling to connect with the right people and resources (hence my new-ish Reddit account). See more about Plexus here.

AI. To help connect you to the right resources, we use OpenAI text embeddings. OpenAI, like Plexus, also requires a unique key per person who uses their API. See more at OpenAI usage guidelines. If Google auth becomes a barrier to entry for enough of you, we’re happy to set up a different per-person authentication method.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions / concerns. Also free to email me at [uzma@plexusnotes.com](mailto:uzma@plexusnotes.com) and I’d be more than happy to chat!

- Uzma from Plexus

 

[katrina2017]

@creech hi, i need help. last time i had sex about a month ago (day before my period was about to come) and day after that i got my period like usual. i didnt have sex since but now my period is 3 days late this month and im paranoid. i have little watery discharge and i usually have cramps now i dont have them. my breasts are bigger they dont hurt but i see that they are biger/fuller. i cannot do pregnancy test rn and im really paranoid can someone give me an advice or give me some reassurence since i saw girls on tiktok getting their period (full period bleeding for few days) and still ended up pregnant. do yall think my period will come soon with these info in text? im not usually late more then 2 days. help pls

 

[loveanddeath]

@creech My wife took a pregnancy test this past Sunday
It is now Wednesday and the positive line is starting to fade a bit
Is is okay for the line to fade?